The British Broadcasting Corporation has allowed despicable racist and homophobic language against Scotland, the Scots and Scottish political leaders to linger on its licence-payer funded news website for almost two days.
The language was used by contributors to the ‘comment’ area of the BBC news website in reference to a story about First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s statement that Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech on Tuesday had undoubtedly brought a second independence referendum closer.
The original story about May’s speech did not allow any comments, while the many comments against Sturgeon and Scotland generally were allowed to stay on the website by a BBC employee or employees who were supposed to "retroactively moderate" the comments and delete any which break BBC ‘house rules’ that prohibit offensive language.
One of the milder comments came from "Jim" saying: “Great news, let’s have another referendum. Scotland is a nation of unfit, benefit scrounging, potential heart attacks, the only thing going for them was the oil but that's finished now. Getting rid of Scotland and the EU in the space of 2 years is like a dream come true.”
Another post by "NHSLOL” said: “Curious that the 3 main parties in Scotland are led by two lesbians and a tranny.”
A contributor called Billyhano cited reasons "why we English should eradicate this scum nation from the planet”.
The same writer also commented: “Apart from Donald Trump’s mum. Can anyone name a Scot who contributed anything worthwhile to the planet?”
A "John Overton" wrote: “Nicola we wish you would go…enjoy the Euro, enjoy Scotish (sic) tv, enjoy paymg (sic) your owns benefits your scroungers. Farewell, hooray at long last.” Referring to Sturgeon, "Andy” wrote: “Why does the BBC give this vile woman so much air time?” while GB842 commented that Scots should not elect “strange little weirdos.”
In the same vein, "Jo" wrote: “Ta, ta, Scotland…your pathetic SNP leader aka Jimmy Cranky makes my skin crawl,” while "Ted" said: “She’s the Scottish version of Nigel Farrage. In drag.”
Another comment by "Terra_Penthcyan" said the Scots “live to hate the English, they are a cancer poisoning our ability to make decisions” while "Truther" wrote “can you imagine how great it would be without the chains of Scotland around the rest of Britain…bog off Scotdrain.”
Many comments did support Sturgeon and deplored the anti-Scottish sentiments. One contributor replied: “It is a sad indictment of our current society when a strong articulate politician who happens to express a view which Brexit supporters do not like gets so much personal abuse.
"Hang your head in shame.”
According to the BBC "house rules" comments that contain offensive content are not allowed on the website.
The rules state “Racist, sexist, homophobic, disablist, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable material will be removed.”
The National asked the BBC why the First Minister's story was opened for comment on the news website but the original story about the Prime Minister and Brexit was not opened to comment. We also asked how a BBC employee or employees allowed racist and homophobic comments to stay on the site, and how these racist and offensive comments comply with BBC website house rules.
New BBC Scotland chief Donalda MacKinnon told this newspaper recently that she wanted to rebuild Scottish trust in the BBC - "there is a significant number still in Scotland whose trust we lost and I think there’s still a bit of work to be done in that regard." The National asked the BBC how allowing such comments on its website is “rebuilding trust”?
The only answer from a BBC spokesman was: "When we have a large volume of comments, as is the case with this story, it takes time to moderate them all."
The problem with that answer is that many comments over two days WERE moderated and deleted - some were criminal in their content - but all of those quoted above were on the website for many hours and some still were when The National went to press.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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