THEGAYUK

Tag: Twitter

All the latest breaking news on Twitter. Browse The THEGAYUK’s complete collection of features and commentary on Twitter and the LGBT+ community.

  • NoHomophobes.com Aims To Research Homophobia Online

    The team that brought the internet, NoHomophobes.com has started an online campaign to research homophobic trends online.

    The project which is being labelled as NoHomophobes 2.0 is using crowd sourcing techniques to obtain labellers to identify tweets that use homophobic language. These human-generated labels will later be used in a machine-learning approach to this research study.

    The research team are looking for as diverse a set of individuals as possible to participate in this unique study. You do not have to be a Twitter user or have Twitter account to participate. You can help them by simply visiting our research project to sign up as a labeller to help code the tweets you will see.
    “Not only is the labelling process important, it’s also a fun, educational, and eye-opening experience,” said a statement from projects website.
    To get involved simply visit:http://www.nohomophobesresearch.com or the Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/ResearchUofA
    When we asked Twitter what they were doing to combat homophobia online, a spokesperson said:

    “As a policy, we do not mediate content (see section 4 of our Terms of Service) or intervene in disputes between users. However, targeted abuse may constitute an infringement of the Twitter Rules”

  • MariagePourTous Trends High In France

    AS Reports emerge of an organised march for marriage equality in France the hashtag #MariagePourTous (MarriageForAll) trends high in France.

    Hundreds of people have taken to twitter to tweet their support and pictures for the marriage equality bill which President Hollande has said he will introduce into French law.

    One Twitter user, Katia ‏@AbsolutelyKatia tweeted:

    MARCH today in Paris! It’s about the fundamental rights this country is so proud of: liberté, egalité, fraternité. #mariagepourtous

    Hundreds of people have responded to the call to publicly demonstrate their support for the marriage equality bill.

    The French bill which establishes marriage for all was subject to mass protests two weeks ago, when a reported 340,000 people turned up on the street of Paris for ‘La Manif Pour Tous’ (Demo for all)

    Supporters of the bill have asked the President not to yield to the pressure of the opponents and maintain the establishment gay marriage under the law.

    More information can be found at www.pridemap.fr

  • Top Homophobic Celebrity Tweets

    Some celebrities just don’t know when to quit, do they? We’ve been searching high and low for those Celebs who have tweeted something homophobic.

    The word “Faggot” has been used million times of times. According to nohomophobes.com, it’s been used over 34,000,000 times on Twitter since 2012. It shows just how far we’ve yet to go. However what is more distressing is that the celeb world has also had its fair share of anti-gay Tweeting action. We’ve done some digging and here are our top celebrity twitter gaffes.

    First up is Burnley footballer Andre Gray who posted a number of homophobic and offensive tweets in 2012. He was fined £25,000 and banned from four games.

    One tweet read,

    ‘Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #Makesmesick.’

    NEXT: Liam Gallagher

  • Twitter Predicts X Factor Winner 2012

    The writing is on the walls it seems for the remaining contestants on this year’s X Factor as we delve in to the fully accredited and scientifically backed up ‘Twitter Winning And Theoretical Service’ (TWATS)… (it doesn’t exist).

    It was almost a certainty that Melanie Masson was going to be the casualty of Sunday night’s X Factor results show – and the TWATS numbers back it up.

    Taking a look at her Twitter stats, we discover that she was by far the most unpopular contestant of this, the tenth series of the UK’s biggest singing competition with a mere 30,500 followers, and Carolynne Poole who was voted off the previous week only had under 60,000 Twitter lovers at the time of her booting.

    Using this science we predict that if MK1, Christopher Maloney or Jade Ellis should find themselves in deadlock (which seems to be the way the judges are taking it at the moment) they may well face the chop with just 42,556, 51,459 and 80,955 followers respectively.

    Betting giant William Hill put that Jade Ellis’s odds of winning at 10/1. However her ‘On The Ground’ support, her fans, just don’t seem to reflect the bookies mood.
    If the number of followers on Twitter is any reflection on the proportion of real life fans then it should be easy to predict the outcome. Unsurprisingly the bookies’ favourites to win are in the top 3, with Union J topping the list with Lucy and Ella trailing a close 2nd and 3rd.
    So based on Twitter here’s our prediction for the over all winner of the 2012 X Factor

    Union J 288,626

    Lucy Spraggan 268 276

    Ella Henderson 221 799

    James MacArthur 220, 679

    Rylan Clark 174 363

    Jahmene Douglas 124,490

    District 3 123, 503

    Kye Sones 114,165

    Jade Ellis 80,995

    Christopher Maloney 51,456

    MK1 42, 556

    ____

    Already Eliminated.

    Carolynne Poole 104,716 (her numbers at the time were around the 60,000 mark)

    Melanie Masson 30,500

  • X Factor Homophobia Towards Rylan Clark Continues

    Sunday night’s episode saw Lucy Spraggan, Jade Ellis and Rylan Clark make history on ITV’s flagship show X FACTOR.

    The openly gay singers battled 10,000s of hopefuls to be one of the twelve contestants to make it through to the live show.

    Lucy Spraggan and Jade Ellis are the first openly gay women to appear on the show. Lucy, 21 from Canterbury took to Twitter last night to say:

     

    ‘That was intense… It begins here.”

     

    However there was a dark cloud over Rylan’s camp as an outpouring of homophobic messages flooded social networks, after his trademark larger than life reaction to the news that Nicole Scherzinger was taking him through to the live shows.

     

    ‘Is this a wind-up? Are you having me on?’ he questioned.

    Rylan later added:

    ‘We’re going to have a right laugh.’

     

    Despite his outrageous reaction to the news Rylan insisted that he isn’t the joke finalist of this year’s competition.

     

    He said:

    ‘I think at the beginning of this process everyone looked at me as a bit of a joker and then people couldn’t be more wrong. I had to go in there and show that I can be serious and be a singer.

    ‘I haven’t really got that much back home, I want to turn that around I want to be achieving something rather than keep being a let-down. I have got nothing to go back to now. I’ve got too much riding on this.’

     

    Last week we reported that some users had issued death threats to the Essex singer and reality star.

     

    Rylan hit back on twitter saying:

    ‘I’ve ben [sic] told not to react to all the shit on here but I’m sorry, I’m a mouthy bastard so I’m gonna… I’ve EARNED my place at judges houses just like every other person in this comp, not everyone is going to like me, I know that, but don’t … Judge me for doing something I’ve always wanted to do, for those who are supportive thank you so much, it means the world…..’

     

    He continued:

     

    ‘I understand I’m going to be the one you either love or hate and that’s fine, you can’t please everyone. I have a thick skin and have had to deal with things in the past. But it’s horrible when you have 250,000 people giving you abuse.

    ‘I’ve had death threats and I’ve been told I’m going to get bottled when I go to clubs. I’ve been told I’m going to have my face sliced open. I’m getting a lot of homophobic gay-bashing abuse which, I’m sad to say, is expected.

    ‘Some people are tweeting me like I’m a murderer. It’s absolutely disgusting.’

     

    An alarming number of Twitter followers took to the micro social network to call for the death of the singer.

     

    User @annabelphelan tweeted:

    Rylan Clarke needs to die in a fire.

     

    @elliscarr

    I’m gonna kill Rylan Clarke [sic] !! Anyone fancy joining me?

     

    Whilst other users were openly homophobic:

     

    @Niall_Breen98

    that rylan fella needs a kick in the stones… queer.

     

    @Mariyah1993

    I really dislike gay people. especially this rylan person. His gayness makes me want to stab him. Imagine that was your son? #Astagfirullah.

     

    So far the police have not been involved and no official complaints have been lodged.

     

    A spokesperson for XFACTOR said:

     

    ‘The welfare of our contestants is always our key priority and we work with them to provide what support is needed.’

    All contestants are given briefings on social media and are encouraged to block abusive messages – or to engaged in any negative comments. Any abuse on social networks is reported to platform – and to the police if ‘deemed to be serious’

     

     

    A Spokesperson for Twitter said:

    ‘We can’t comment on individual accounts, however we have a clear policy on our site and a process for users who want to report abuse.’

     

    The live shows start next Saturday night at 8.10PM.

  • Rylan Faces Homophobic Tweets

    The judges of the X Factor caused controversy and a social media meltdown yesterday when they announced that contestant Rylan Clark would be going through to the next round – the all important judges’ houses; causing the Essex wannabe’s name to trend worldwide last night.

     

    Many users took to micro-social media site Twitter to vent their outrage.
    Reality Starlet Mille Mackintosh from Made In Chelsea wrote:

    ‘just had to turn the tv down #xfactor #rylan’

    User @jaymeatsix said:

    ‘Absolutely dreadful decision to put that Rylan Clark through!!’

    And @hannthewanted Tweeted:

    ‘Yeah but Rylan is a novelty act compared to everybody else talent.’

    Rylan who appeared in last night’s show in ‘Spikes and Sparkles’ sang his own club version of Pussycat Dolls’ song ‘Don’t Cha’.


    Gary Barlow who is an outspoken critic of Rylan was not moved by the blonde turned brunette, when the openly gay hunk said:

    “This is my only chance to show you guys what I’m all about… I’m not a Whitney wannabe’

    A fair amount of homophobic abuse was hurled at him via the site, with user ‏@KyleHankins tweeting:

    ‘That f**king rylan only got through because he’s gay and louis fancies him #queerc**ts’

    And @DaleRawlings7

    ‘People wonder why were sometimes harsh to gay ppl [sic] then idiots like rylan clarke [sic] come on TV’

    Whilst @craigmaiden22

    XFactor is Corrupt I’m hearing Rylan (fake made up gay homo name) got through, who wants to find him and kill him ?!

    Rylan has tweeted in the past that he had be dealing with death threats since appearing on ITV’s flagship show – but said:

    ‘It’s all part of the fun.’

    An X Factor spokesperson said:

    ‘We are looking into the matter.’

    X Factor continues next Saturday at 8.10PM

  • Tom Daley Sent Anti-Gay Tweet

    An anti-gay Tweet featured on Daniel Thomas’ Twitter stream yesterday after Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield narrowly missed out on a medal at the London Olympics.

    (more…)

  • #KylieTimeBomb explodes on twitter

    The singer takes control of Twitter as her hashtag beats all records.

    Kylie Minogue has broken all previous records on the social networking site Twitter when her fanbase achieves over 25,000 tweets about her brand new comeback single Timebomb in just 43 minutes.

    Kylie promised to unveil the brand new single on her official website if 25,000 tweets with the hashtag #KylieTimeBomb was achieved, a feat completed in just 43 minutes, making her a #1 trending topic worldwide in just 4 minutes.

    Minogue told her fans: “You did it!!! I wanna wanna whoop.”

     

  • Joe McElderry Suffers Homophobic Abuse

    Xfactor Alumni and winner Joe McElderry has become another victim of homophobic abuse on Twitter, the 140 characters, mini social networking site.


    A user of the site ‘Bryden Morgan’ of Inverness, Scotland tweeted the star:

    “ahahaha nice success you’ve had after x-factor you gay c*nt!!”.

    Joe who won Popstar to Operastar last year tweeted back: “and judging by your profile pic you’ve clearly had a lot of success”.

    Morgan at first seemed remorseful of the comment made to the singer tweeting:

    “ok I apologize (sic) for the gay part it was mainly to insult him about x-factor”.

    However, he then tweeted that he had “a gang of gay rights activists” attacking him and that Joe’s fans had no right to get their “knickers in a twist” over it.

    The abuse continued into the early hours of this morning when Morgan tweeted:

    “#TeamBryden RT if you also think joe mcelderry is s**t and is being a little bitch #GetOverIt”

    There have been recent cases of arrests in connection to homophobic abuse and sending abusive messages to celebrities.

    TheGayUK has also contacted Twitter directly for comment on what Twitter will do to protect minorities and LGBT users on the site. So far Twitter has declined to comment.

    A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: “Police received reports yesterday from a member of the public with concerns of comments made on Twitter.

    “Enquiries were carried out and no complaints have been made.”

  • Boy George Quits Twitter

    It was reported that UK singer and DJ Boy George had quit Twitter after the service reportedly failed to help the star after a string of homophobic attacks on the microblogging site on the 23rd April.

    Twitter has yet to respond to the matter, however, we can confirm that THEGAYUK has put in a formal request for comment on homophobic abuse on the site.

    In a tweet the Culture Club singer and DJ said:

    “I’ve taken my homophobic spam issue to my lawyers and the police now!! Someone is going to get done!! Don’t let it be you!!”

    Boy George has over 200,000 followers on the service.