A man falsely accused of murder by Tommy Robinson in disinformation”.
Abdul Hai, who was acquitted of the murder of teenager Richard Everitt in 1994, told The Guardian that he is considering legal action against the social media site formerly known as Twitter, after Robinson, a far-right firebrand, posted that he had been convicted of the crime.
Hai said: “There needs to be proper legislation to hold social media websites accountable. “We need platforms for people to voice their concerns, but there needs to be a framework to stop the spread of misinformation and false accusations, because for the victims of this, their lives will never be the same.”
Hai sent a legal warning to
The battle centers on a publication by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, made on the anniversary of the murder of Everitt, a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed in London on August 13, 1994, in which a judge he later ruled was “an unprovoked racial attack.” The teenager had been murdered by “a gang of Bangladeshis”, Robinson wrote, adding that Badrul Miah, Showat Akbar and Hai had been “convicted” of his murder.
In fact, Miah received a life sentence for conspiring to murder Everitt and Akbar was convicted of violent disorder. At the end of the prosecution’s argument, the judge in the case asked the jury to acquit Hai, ruling that there was no evidence that he was among the group that had killed Everitt.
Hai immediately denounced the publication and sent Robinson a brief letter declaring that he was not guilty. “He’s someone I was afraid to contact, but I felt like I needed to know what was wrong,” Hai said.
Three days later, on August 16, the tweet disappeared. Robinson then made another post, this time posting a screenshot of the original and explaining to his million followers that he had deleted the original to avoid having his account suspended while he appealed its deletion. “I removed it as your appeal will take days,” he wrote.
Hai has said this “makes a mockery” of X’s rules. Through lawyers, Hai reported the follow-up post but said he received no response. On August 28, his attorneys sent X a pre-claim letter (a legal blow to the bow) demanding removal of the charge and a response by September 11.
The company removed the post on September 6 and responded to Hai’s lawyers a day before the deadline, stating that X’s goal was to promote “public conversation,” adding that users were sharing information of public interest, “and as a result, the general public. benefits.” It stated that users could report content that violated its terms, adding: “We reviewed the post and (have) taken appropriate action.” The post had been removed.
But Hai has argued that enough to defend their own policies. and called on parliamentarians to pass laws to curb hate speech and misinformation on social media sites.
Harry Eccles-Williams, a partner at law firm Mishcon de Reya, said legal action should be taken against X in the United States, where Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects social media platforms from legal liability. by the content published by users.
He said that since Elon Musk bought X, his content moderation team has been severely cut and there has been a proliferation of harmful content. “At the moment there is little that can be done. However, the Online Safety Act has the potential to change things and I foresee a big showdown between X and Ofcom in 2025.”
Hai highlighted his belief in freedom of expression and the right to protest. “Those rights must be protected at all costs,” he said. “But freedom of expression comes with responsibility.”
A spokesperson for X said: “To comply with UK law, X acted against certain posts relating to Mr Hai. “This action was completed expeditiously on September 6, 2024, ahead of the deadline requested by Mr. Hai’s legal team.”
