Twitter has banned the European Parliament campaign account for UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin, better known online as Sargon of Akkad.
The ban took place around the same time as they banned the campaign account for independent candidate Tommy Robinson.
Benjamin’s account had approximately 10,000 followers when it was removed from the platform.
https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/1121822705987223552
Like Robinson, Benjamin himself is also banned from Twitter. However, the campaign accounts are both said to be run by staff members or campaign volunteers.
https://twitter.com/MDeLaBroc/status/1121824656649007106
Michael De La Broc, a member of the campaign team, tweeted that they will be taking the censorship to the relevant electoral authorities and potentially seeking restitution through the courts.
“Carl never used the account, it was run by his team. We are investigating why, but strongly suspect this is a deliberate act of political censorship to deny a candidate his voice in a crucial election,” De La Broc tweeted. “As some one on the team, we will be taking this to the relevant electoral authorities, and if there are grounds, we will be seeking restitution via the courts for this political interference by a foreign entity in our elections.”
UKIP has also vowed to “get to the bottom” of the issue and declared that the censorship is “election interference.”
Official UKIP MEP Campaign account @CarlUKIP of which Carl Benjamin has no access to has been suspended from @Twitter.
This is election interference, and UKIP will get to the bottom of this. @TwitterSupport
— UK Independence Party (@UKIP) April 26, 2019
