Following Ed Miliband’s loss in the UK general elections, Harry Potter author JK Rowling faced online abuse from alleged Scottish National Party and Ukip supporters. The SNP became the third largest party in the UK after taking 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland, and supporters did not take too kindly to JK Rowling.
Rowling is a vocal Labour supporter, and she had previously donated a considerable amount of money to the Labour party as well as to the No Campaign, a target against Scotland’s referendum, which called for the country’s independence.
She strongly defended her political views in what followed late last week as heated twitter debates. She is known to only tweet on rare occasions, but this time seemed to really unease Rowling. She asked a user – “were you discriminating on grounds of racial purity? Was my blood not Scottish enough?”
And she continued – “where we differ right now is that I do not think the SNP is a progressive party. I don’t like its record on a number of issues.
And she did not stop for a while – “as I said, I agree with Orwell who believed that patriotism is fundamentally defensive, nationalism fundamentally aggressive.”
Others fired back at Rowling, one of which called her an “enigma” because she “suffered severe poverty” and is yet “supporting a party of austerity.” That was modest compared to the other insults that followed. The most aggressive twitter thrashings labeled her as a “whore”, “traitor”, and a “bitch.”
She spoke out about the troubling situation. “This week, though, my personal line has been crossed with being called traitor and shite the least of the abuse.”
The author wanted to exemplify a stand against bullies.
“I feel no responsibility to hush up that kind of behaviour to protect the image of any political party.”
“It isn’t always fun being a famous woman on Twitter and I believe in standing up to bullies.”
As Rowling retweeted the harsh comments to all of her followers, support from her community of fans began to roll in. One user in particular said, “I may disagree with you politically but anyone that feels the need to send abusive messages needs to read all Harry Potter books.”
The support seemed perpetual, especially after a number of abusers told Rowling that it would be best for her to leave Scotland. Fans from around the world encouraged and reminded her that she has a warm place in their respective country. It left a very much antagonized Rowling feeling emotional over the response of her fans.
“It’s making me tearful. I’m always like this. Bullying never makes me cry, then people are lovely and I bawl.” It’s satisfying to know that social media can serve as a powerful tool to make profoundly positive impacts on people’s lives.
Image via ‘Huffington Post’
