Site developer says Transport for London lawyer asked for deletion because some people use it to fake noticeboards with ‘racially offensive messages’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A parody website allowing users to make a fake “handwritten” London Underground sign has been taken down because Transport for London was concerned it was being used to circulate racist messages.

Yorkshire-based developer Tim Waters tweeted on Thursday that he had been asked by TfL to delete the website due to concerns that people believed the images were real.

Tim (@tim_waters) I've been asked by a lawyer from TFL to take down my funny website https://t.co/jnS3Esmg9d

Tim (@tim_waters) Due to threats by TfL lawyers I'm deleting fun parody site https://t.co/jnS3Esmg9d & GitHub repo https://t.co/fAGv2bEj1H later today :-(

In a statement, TFL said it asked Waters to take down the site because it believed it was being used to spread “racially offensive messages”, which looked as though they had been written by members of LU staff.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We have asked the website owner not to use the image of a London Underground customer information sign in this way. It may not have been their intention, but we believe the images created by people using this site have the potential to cause harm and distress to passengers or members of the public who see them. There are instances where they have contained racially offensive messages.”



Most recently, the tool was used to create a sign with the hashtag #YouAintNoMuslimBruv, which went viral after the attack at Leytonstone station last weekend. It is not certain who created it, but it was soon shared thousands of times on Twitter by multiple users, some of whom congratulated TFL for its apparent show of solidarity:



Philip Montague (@get_sme) You just have to love London. #YouAintNoMuslimBruv pic.twitter.com/ji63Gcwn2X

After Waters announced he would be deleting the site, his followers reacted via their own fake tube signs:

When contacted by the Guardian, Waters said he would be writing a blogpost with a scan of the letter sent to him by TfL.

He created the tool in 2013, about the same time that the signs, both fake and real, began circulating on social media. The tool was soon featured by a number of publications and has cropped up in viral tweets over the past two years.

Handwritten London Underground signs have been a source of joy on social media for some time now. In an example of a real one, the sign at Tufnell Park station has sometimes been decorated by a Doctor Who fan:

Elena Cresci (@elenacresci) Someone at Tufnell Park tube station bloody loves Doctor Who pic.twitter.com/nu3KE5RheN (pic via @trixie)

Other stations opt for a quote of the day – Kennington is among them:

But there are many, many fakes. It’s fairly easy to tell if it’s a fake – generally, they all have the same handwriting, use the same image and are usually attributed to an unnamed tube station.