Wings Over Scotland indy blogger reinstated to Twitter

Scottish independence blog Wings Over Scotland has been reinstated to Twitter three years after being handed a "permanent" ban.

The social network took action against Stuart Campbell, the blogger behind the account, in 2019.

Writing online, Campbell said Twitter informed him that the move was in response to "hateful conduct" in relation to a post which included swearing.

At the time, he said that "Twitter has no prohibition on swearing, otherwise it would have about six users" and disputed the suggestion that the material was in breach of Twitter's hateful conduct policy, which states that users must not "promote violence against, threaten or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease".

Now his account has been reactivated. Campbell tweeted: "Seems it has all been a big misunderstanding."

A screenshot posted on his account suggested that the account had been "unsuspended" by Twitter, which was recently bought out by billionaire Elon Musk, because a review found that "it does not appear to be in violation" of the rules.

Wings Over Scotland came to prominence ahead of the independence referendum and has a follower count of more than 50,000.

In 2019 he lost a high profile defamation case against former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, after she claimed in a newspaper column that he had posted homophobic tweets.

Sheriff Nigel Ross said that Dugdale's article was protected under the fair comment principle, but was incorrect to suggest that Campbell was homophobic. A 2020 appeal by Campbell, who sought £25,000 from Dugdale, upheld the sheriff's decision.