JK trolling

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but the disproportionate media coverage given in Scotland to the so-called “vile cybernat abuse” of No supporters seems odd when most of the online bile moves in the other direction.

I liked Ian McWhirter’s column in the Sunday Herald about it:

No woman in public life will be unfamiliar with the language used, because the sad reality is that almost all women in public life are subject to misogynistic hate speak – Nicola Sturgeon in particular, whose inbox is full of this stuff, including death threats. A number of Yes-supporting women, to my certain knowledge, wanted to talk about this last week but simply feared the consequences.

You find what you look for on the internet, but to claim as the Labour spin doctor John McTernan did on STV’s Scotland Tonight that this was “co-ordinated” by the SNP in a conscious campaign of intimidation of JK Rowling was absurd. The SNP hate this stuff because they know how damaging it is, and have been trying to stamp it out for years. But unless the tweeters are actually members of the Scottish National Party – and few, if any, apparently are – there’s little they can do about it.


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