Growing anti-India sentiment on X: User 'Barry Stanton' suspended after series of racist posts against Indians

Elon Musk and his revamped form of Twitter, X, have been under fire in many countries over the social media platform’s rules relating to free speech. Countries like China, Russia and North Korea have long banned X in their countries over “misinformation”, and Brazil recently joined this list. While all these cases are exclusive to nations that have either banned or restricted the use of X, but company’s rules over what it considers “free speech” have always remained a point of contention.

Recently, an X account of an anonymous user namedBarry Stanton started sharing racist posts about India, some of which were mere “misinformation” and blatant lies.

Barry Stanton’s X account used to frequently share derogatory cartoons and posts depicting Indians in a negative light. His posts aren’t just limited to Indians but also include hateful and abusive posts against Jews and Africans.

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After the account started sharing a series of absolutely racist posts against Indians with zero substance, an online outrage by Indians led to the suspension of the account.

X suspended the account of anonymous user Barry Stanton with nearly 200,000 followers. The user impersonated himself to be a UK-based actor.

Kindly repost so that authorities can take immediate action:

An email has been sent to @AshwiniVaishnaw , @MIB_India to withhold the account of Barry Stanton In India and one copy also has been sent to the UK high commission in India.

Pehle isko legally pelenge usk baad iska… pic.twitter.com/qaCyjuBmOX — Akshit Singh 🇮🇳 (@IndianSinghh) August 29, 2024

As per India Today, the user once praised a post on how to drive Indian nationals away from “white neighbourhoods.”

Stanton’s account was reported to authorities by several Indian users, including Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and the Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom.

According to a 2017 report by British news website The New Statesman, the pictures on Stanton’s account were stolen from another man, a pensioner from Worcestershire.

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“Barry Stanton does not exist – or, not in the way Twitter users want to think he does. The account is a parody,” the report said.

Storyful’s UK Editor Kevin Donnellan followed @BarryStanton64 in an attempt to find out who he was. He then located the original Facebook page where “Barry” posted his photos.

It is safe to conclude that Barry Stanton is merely a fake identity that an anonymous troll uses to disseminate anti-Indian content. However, the question here is not about the user, but about the platform that allows such racist posts to flourish in the name of "free speech."

This is not the first time that such anti-India posts have surfaced on X. Many critics and netizens have seen these accounts sharing more racist content against Indians since Elon Musk took over X in 2022.

Earlier this month, controversial British YouTuber Miles Routledge received massive criticism after he made racist remarks targeting India on X and also threatened to use nuclear weapons against Indians if he became the PM of England.

(With inputs from agencies)