Twitter forces Irish journalist to remove Daniel Kinahan ‘drug baron’ tweet

A crime journalist working for an Irish newspaper was locked out of his Twitter account after a complaint was upheld over his sharing of a photograph of Daniel Kinahan with UFC fighter Darren Till.

John Hand, chief reporter with the Irish Mirror, was forced to delete the photograph and text referring to Mr Kinahan as a "drug baron" before he was able to access his Twitter account again.

He believed an unknown person on Twitter, via an anonymous account, complained about the tweet. That complaint was upheld by the social media company, and Mr Hand was denied access to his account until he deleted the tweet containing the photograph and text.

“I was surprised, especially when I realised it was likely a anonymous account holder made this complaint. Then the complaint is upheld, and a journalist is kicked off their account until they delete a post or they appeal it. The appeals can take weeks, and in the meantime you can’t access Twitter at all,” Mr Hand said.

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He added a number of newspapers had reported on the photograph over the weekend, with those stories shared via Twitter, apparently without incident.

“If my tweet violates Twitter’s privacy policy, do those tweets at the weekend, linking to stories with the same picture, also violate the policy? It just doesn’t make sense.

“How can an anonymous account holder, a faceless person, get a journalist working with the national media banned from their own social media account?” Mr Hand said.

Mr Hand said if he had not deleted the photograph he would have remained locked out of his account, which he depended on for his work. He would not have been able to post tweets, contact people via direct messaging or access Twitter to view or search for other users’ tweets.

Mr Hand said because Twitter did not specifically tell him what aspects of his tweet breached their privacy policy, it was virtually impossible to lodge an informed appeal.

In reply to queries, a spokesman for Twitter said the action taken against Mr Hand had not been deliberate.

“In this case, we took enforcement action on the account referenced in error,” he said. “We use a combination of technology and human review to enforce the Twitter rules across the service, which we are continuously working to improve.”

The Irish Times understands the anonymous Twitter account used to lodge the complaint about Mr Hand’s Tweet has now been removed by the social media company.

The tweet Mr Hand shared last Friday contained the photograph of Mr Kinahan with Mr Till and stated the picture had been taken in Dubai that day and referred to Mr Kinahan as a "drug baron".

Mr Kinahan has been named by the Criminal Assets Bureau in evidence to the High Court as an international drugs gang leader and one of the key protagonists in the Kinahan-Hutch gangland feud.

Mr Till is a professional athlete, in UFC, from Britain, and there is no suggestion whatever he has any involvement in any form of crime.

Mr Hand made no remarks about Mr Till in his initial tweet, other than stating he was pictured with Mr Kinahan in Dubai, the same information the British athlete had himself posted on Twitter and that remains available to view.

Mr Hand said he shared the photograph of Mr Till and Mr Kinahan last Friday and continued to use Twitter without incident over the weekend.

However, when he went to his account on Monday morning, he could see a notice from Twitter informing him his tweet of last Friday, containing the photograph of the two men and text, violated its privacy policies.

Mr Hand was informed he would remain locked out of his account until he deleted the photograph or appealed the decision Twitter had reached against him on foot of the complaint. Mr Hand deleted the post with the photograph and was granted access to his account again. He then tweeted the story he wrote last Friday about the photograph.