A facebook site attacking Alex Salmond has caused outrage after it was found to contain abusive and obscene comments targeting the Scottish First Minister.
The ‘I Hate Alex Salmond’ site was set up in 2008 by Dundee based David J. Barratt and has attracted a stream of vulgar and disgusting messages from a host of other Unionist contributors. The background of the site author is unclear although there have been unconfirmed suggestions that he is a member of the armed forces.
The First Minister is described variously as a ‘c*nt’, ‘Horrible little Nazi’, ‘puss bucket’, ‘a racist’ and an ‘insular bastard’. There are also derogatory remarks about the SNP as well as racist comments against Scots in general.
The site contains a link to a petition against Scottish independence that sees Labour and Conservative supporters amongst its 64 signatories.
The petition also contains objectionable comments, with one Labour supporter stating:
“The SNP are just FACISTS who hate democracy!!! VOTE LABOUR – WE ARE THE ONLY PARTY TRULY FIT TO RULE SCOTLAND AND THE UNITED KINGDOM!!!”
Another Labour supporter proclaims that they:
“can’t stand the racism demonstrated by the snp”
The site is just one of many similar sites that seek to abuse the First Minister and comes only days after newspaper reports attacked creators of another site.
Double standards
The ‘Jim Murphy doesn’t speak for me‘ facebook site was set up by independence supporters in response to Mr Murphy’s claim that Labour were the party for the facebook generation.
That site saw some contributors refer to Mr Murphy as an ‘idiot’ and a ‘dork’. They resulted in Mr Murphy saying: “I’m sure Alex Salmond didn’t personally sanction this, but it’s time for him to stop it.”
Labour MSP Cathy Jamieson said of the site: “This kind of vitriol and hatred is shocking … The SNP have done nothing to close down their cybernats – and now we know why.”
The ‘Jim Murphy’ site resulted in both The Scotsman and The Daily record newspapers publishing articles attacking the sites creators and labelling them ‘cybernats’.
The Scotsman newspaper said:
“The vocal cybernats champion the SNP cause online but often stray beyond the boundaries of taste and decency.”
The Daily Record’s Magnus Gardham said of the Jim Murphy facebook site:
“The over-excited cybernats were at it again yesterday with an anti-Jim Murphy page on Facebook. Let’s hope they get reined in.”
However there was no such condemnation nor labelling of the creator of, and contributors to, the anti-Salmond site.
This has led to dismay and anger amongst many SNP supporters who feel that there are double standards at work. They point out that the high profile condemnation heaped on so called ‘cybernats’ by some sections of the Scottish media is absent when anti-SNP sites, also containing deeply offensive content, are exposed.
They argue that if words such as ‘dork’ and ‘idiot’ are sufficient to produce condemnation from newspaper journalists then why not the same condemnation for far more objectionable words like ‘c*nt’, ‘arsehole’, ‘bastard and ‘nazi’ – not to mention phrases of a xenophobic nature.