GEORGE Galloway has threatened to sue Twitter after he was labelled “Russian state-affiliated media” on the platform.
The former Labour MP – who was famously ejected from the party over his staunch opposition to the Iraq War – hit out at the label on Wednesday evening.
He currently hosts a show on the Russian-state backed TV station RT called Sputnik, which he has presented since 2013.
Twitter has branded him as being linked with the Kremlin but no reason has been provided for the label. Galloway strongly denies being associated with the Russian state.
He tweeted: “Dear @TwitterSupport I am not ‘Russian State Affiliated media. I work for NO #Russian media.
“I have 400,000 followers.
“I’m the leader of a British political party and spent nearly 30 years in the British parliament. If you do not remove this designation I will take legal action.”
In his most recent Sputnik episode, the Dundee-born Unionist claimed Russia’s currency has recovered from Western sanctions.
The rouble crashed in the days following the Russian invasion of Ukraine but has recovered though not to its pre-invasion levels.
Twitter’s rules around the labels mean state-financed media outlets in the West which are editorially independent of the government such as the BBC or NPR in the US are not branded as “state-affiliated”.
But outlets such as RT - formerly Russia Today - and the Chinese-government backed Global Times newspaper are.
Twitter defines state-affiliated media as “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”
Also included in the warning label are “prominent staff”.
Galloway’s weekly show is produced by Global Media Services, a commercial subsidiary of the international media group the Associated Press.
Since he was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 after he called on British soldiers in Iraq to disobey their “illegal” orders, he has led three minor political parties, including All For Unity which opposed Scottish independence.
He is currently the leader of the Workers Party of Britain and most recently held office as the MP for Bradford West between 2012 and 2015.
Twitter was approached for comment.
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