{"id":2727,"date":"2018-09-30T15:25:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-30T15:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/should-gammon-slur-be-banned-on-twitter\/"},"modified":"2018-09-30T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-30T15:25:51","slug":"should-gammon-slur-be-banned-on-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/should-gammon-slur-be-banned-on-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"Should gammon slur be banned on Twitter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Gammon\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/5A21\/production\/_101537032_gettyimages-859284876.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Gammon is often used as an insult<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Twitter has asked its members to help shape new rules banning &#8220;dehumanising speech&#8221;, in which people are compared to animals or objects.<\/p>\n<p>It said language that made people seem &#8220;less than human&#8221; had repercussions.<\/p>\n<p>The social network already has a hateful-conduct policy but has been accused of bias for allowing some types of insulting language to remain online.<\/p>\n<p>For example, countless tweets describing middle-aged white men as &#8220;gammon&#8221; can be found on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>At present, some derogatory language is deemed to be a clear violation of Twitter&#8217;s existing hateful-conduct policy.<\/p>\n<p>It bans insults based on a person&#8217;s:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">race<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">ethnicity<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">nationality<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">sexual orientation<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">sex<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">gender<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">religious beliefs<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">age<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">disability<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">medical condition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But Twitter&#8217;s critics have used the hashtag #verifiedhate to highlight examples of what they believe to be bias in what the platform judges to be unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;gammon&#8221; insult gained popularity after a collage of contributors to the BBC&#8217;s Question Time programme &#8211; each middle-aged, white and male &#8211; was shared along with the phrase &#8220;Great Wall of Gammon&#8221; in 2017.<\/p>\n<div class=\"social-embed\">\n<div class=\"social-embed-post social-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"embed embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"embed-region\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Twitter post by @little_pengelly\">\n            <a class=\"off-screen jump-link\" href=\"#jump-linkhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/little_pengelly\/status\/995478016015978497\">Skip Twitter post  by @little_pengelly<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-wrap\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I&#8217;m appalled by the term &#8220;gammon&#8221; now frequently entering the lexicon of so many (mainly on the left) &amp; seemingly be accepted. This is a term based on skin colour &amp; age &#8211; stereotyping by colour or age is wrong no matter what race, age or community. It is just wrong<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 E Little-Pengelly MP (@little_pengelly) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/little_pengelly\/status\/995478016015978497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<p class=\"off-screen\" id=\"jump-linkhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/little_pengelly\/status\/995478016015978497\" tabindex=\"-1\">End of Twitter post  by @little_pengelly<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"social-embed\">\n<div class=\"social-embed-post social-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"embed embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"embed-region\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Twitter post by @AdamBienkov\">\n            <a class=\"off-screen jump-link\" href=\"#jump-linkhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamBienkov\/status\/995964324219940864\">Skip Twitter post  by @AdamBienkov<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"twitter-wrap\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is no cultural, economic, or political disadvantage to being an angry old man with pink cheeks. Relax, nobody is coming for you.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamBienkov\/status\/995964324219940864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 14, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<p class=\"off-screen\" id=\"jump-linkhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamBienkov\/status\/995964324219940864\" tabindex=\"-1\">End of Twitter post  by @AdamBienkov<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Twitter said it intended to prohibit dehumanising language towards people &#8220;in an identifiable group&#8221; because researchers had shown it could lead to real-world violence.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether calling men &#8220;gammon&#8221; would count as dehumanising speech, the company said it would first seek the views of its members.<\/p>\n<p>The scope of &#8220;identifiable groups&#8221; covered by the new rules will be decided after a public consultation that will run until 9 October.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This consultation is the time for people, experts and free expression groups to be involved in the development of a policy that will protect individuals and groups,&#8221; said Nick Pickles, senior policy strategist for Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Pickles said that all views would be welcome in the consultation and that the company would be transparent about the results.<\/p>\n<p>He recognised that some people might tell Twitter it should not block &#8220;dehumanising speech&#8221; since it would stifle free expression.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We think it&#8217;s really important to have outside input, for the health of the platform. It&#8217;s about being transparent about how we develop our processes,&#8221; he told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a genuine commitment from the company to be more accountable to our users.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-45633522\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Gammon is often used as an insult Twitter has asked its members to help shape new rules banning &#8220;dehumanising speech&#8221;, in which people are compared to animals or objects. It said language that made people seem &#8220;less than human&#8221; had repercussions. The social network already has a hateful-conduct policy &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}