Twitter has decided to bar Suzanne Evans from the platform after she sent a tweet about a Newsnight interview she had done in 2016 with trans woman Paris Lees, saying that Lees had been “unbelievably nasty and aggressive” and “Dare I say it, not the slightest bit ‘ladylike.'”

Owen Jones organised a pile-on, which resulted in Twitter decreeing that Suzanne’s tweet had violated their definition of “hateful conduct” and locking her account temporarily, with a warning that she could be permanently suspended if she violated their rules again.

Whatever anyone’s views on the trans debate, it is deeply troubling that Twitter saw fit to bar Evans from the site over what is at worst an insensitive comment, particularly given the cesspit of genuinely violent and threatening abuse which goes ignored on a daily basis. It’s yet another incident in the highly pernicious trend of free speech being suppressed and people being highly selectively barred from public platforms simply for saying things that hurt other people’s feelings…