In this morning’s Sun, right-wing blog editor Brendan O’Neill wrote an article on the Crown Prosecution Service’s plans for stricter sentences for online abusers. As can be expected, O’Neill’s tirade was based entirely on a straw man, but that didn’t stop him from arguing that “the mistake of drunkenly tweeting that a female politician you don’t like is a “bitch”” wasn’t that big of a deal.

Nope it's not cracking down on "online mockery" – actually racist, homophobic & transphobic trolls. pic.twitter.com/FetCfu9DkK — Ashley Cowburn (@ashcowburn) August 22, 2017

O’Neill, who is notorious for his incessant trolling (previous delightful articles include Posh-bashing has replaced prole-bashing as the nastiest strain in British politics and Homosexuals were once branded as mentally disordered. Now homophobes are treated the same way) was very concerned that the CPS plans would upset everyone’s midnight misogyny:

“Make the mistake of drunkenly tweeting that a female politician you don’t like is a “bitch” or write a Facebook post questioning whether trans women are “real” women and you could be judged unfriendly and have your collar felt by the cops. It’s terrifying.”

"this snowflake world where I cannot even call a woman a bitch on the internet after a few cans" — Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) August 22, 2017

O’Neill was also astonished by the sobering reality that “just being unfriendly to someone on the basis of their faith or sexuality could count as a hate crime.”

It was pointed out that the premise of O’Neill’s article was also a gross misrepresentation, given a case could not be brought against “satire…rude comment…banter or humour” under the new plans.

literally says in the new CPS guidance it won't apply to "banter" pic.twitter.com/eC1rAuFcE1 — Ashley Cowburn (@ashcowburn) August 22, 2017

The vast majority pointed out that, predictably, O’Neill had skewed the CPS announcement:

This is so obviously misleading. CPS guidance could not be clearer that only persistent hate crime will be prosecuted https://t.co/1absr0x09O — Louise Haigh MP (@LouHaigh) August 22, 2017

Back under the bridge, troll