Different rules
Trans activists have hacked into the website of the Free Speech Union (FSU) and published a list of its donors online.
A direct action group calling itself Bash Back said it had breached the FSU’s online security and was revealing the names of all those who had donated more than £50 over the past two years. Hours after the list of names appeared online, the FSU obtained an emergency injunction from the High Court, forcing the group to remove the donor details.
What was the point? Just random intimidation, I suppose, because what else could it be?
Bash Back, which describes itself as a direct action group “focused on total transgender liberation”, recently made headlines after allegedly attacking the constituency offices of Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary. Paint was sprayed across the building in Ilford, east London, and the words “child killer” were daubed on the windows.
Masked activists also disrupted a women’s rights conference in Brighton in the autumn, smashing windows and spraying paint on the building.
Calling it “direct action” is a tidy bit of self-flattery. It’s direct bullying is what it is.
At 4.30pm on Monday, Bash Back posted a link to a list of names of FSU’s financial supporters.
The FSU’s website was disabled for 72 hours after the attack, but the group later set up a temporary page allowing supporters to continue donating via a secure portal.
In the early hours of Wednesday, the FSU went to the High Court and was granted an emergency injunction. The order banned Bash Back from publishing the list of donor details, and warned any breach could lead to imprisonment for contempt of court.
It also named Autumn Redpath, a 22-year-old postgraduate student at Warwick University, as someone allegedly associated with the group.
Biter bit, eh wot? I don’t suppose Autumn wanted to be named as one of these criminal bullies.
Lord Young of Acton, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “Bash Back is a dangerous anti-democratic organisation that boasts about breaking the law and encourages its supporters to steal hammers to carry out ‘direct action’, including against Members of Parliament. The Health Secretary has already been targeted in a very unpleasant attack. Hacking and then publishing digital material is a serious criminal offence punishable by up to five years in jail.”
Lord Young said he was disappointed that none of the police forces contacted appeared to have yet taken any action against those responsible, adding: “The members of this group need to be prosecuted. Neither we nor our members will be cowed by these tactics.”
No action, eh? Jeez. When it’s a woman saying men are not women the action is taken before she has time to say anything else.
