30,000 sign up to Twitter to ‘DEFUND THE BBC’
A NEW campaign group called “Defund the BBC” has seen a flood of support in the last 24 hours The g..
A NEW campaign group called “Defund the BBC” has seen a flood of support in the last 24 hours
The group, which operates on Twitter, describes itself as a grassroots campaign set up to defund the BBC amid allegations of bias. Founder James Yucel said: “I’m just a student that’s fed up, so I’ve founded this movement to defund the BBC. It’s time.” One statement issued on the group’s Twitter feed said: “25,000 followers on the first day.
“The BBC can’t ignore the people forever.”
Another tweet said: “This isn’t just a campaign anymore.
“This is a movement.”
Mr Yucel said: “Ultimately the BBC is not impartial they regularly refuse to introduce guests with a political background and they edit the footage to make the government look worse than they actually are.”
The student said: “And yeah, I think the people have had enough really.
“It’s up to all of you to share the hashtag to defund the BBC.
“Because let’s be honest here, they can’t ignore us forever.”
One Twitter follower said: “Thank you James, good luck with your studies.”
Another was outraged at the BBC and tweeted: “Id like to know how many complaints the BBC received over Emily Maitlis and what they intend to do about her blatant bias.
“Their silence is deafening and pretending it didnt happen wont help their case to retain the license fee.”
BBC presenter Emily Maitless was criticised after saying Dominic Cummings had “broken lockdown rules” and blasted the Boris Johnson’s “blind loyalty” to him in a Newsnight rant.
After this, she was accused of being biased against the Government.
The BBC apologised the day after, saying her introduction did not meet impartiality standards.
It added: “Staff have been reminded of the guidelines.”
The campaign group comes on the heel of the rallying cry across the US to “defund the police” in light of the tragic case of George Floyd.
Mr Floyd was killed by a US police officer who pressed his knee onto the victim’s neck.
In the US some elected officials for the first time are proposing budget reductions and divestments from police.
One critic of the group claimed its quick growth in support was “suspicious”.
He said on Twitter: “This is suspicious, a grassroots campaign to ‘Defund the BBC’ using that hashtag is trending today.
“The account, set up in the past few days, already has 33k+ followers.
“I will look into the hashtag to see who is using it.”
The page owners were quick to hit back, arguing: “Pro-Establishment Marc here is heavily implying you’re all bots.
“I’m sure he would appreciate it if you were to tell him if that was the case or not.”
This led to a multitude of comments from followers of the page in defence of their support