Comedian Becky Lucas Has Been Banned From Twitter For Joking About Decapitating Scott Morrison
Lucas has called the decision hypocritical.
Australian comedian Becky Lucas has been banned from Twitter after making a joke about wanting to decapitate Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Lucas, a frequent Twitter user, wrote on the platform last week that “every politician is a disgusting cunt. They’re pathetic social climbers who only care about their self image. I honestly think we need to chop their heads off”.
She then tweeted the PM directly, telling him she was “gonna chop your fucking head off”.
Her account was temporarily suspended, a ban which was then made permanent on the grounds she had posted threatening or violent content.
But Lucas believes she is the victim of a double standard, pointing out that women frequently receive rape and death threats on Twitter and the culprits face no repercussions.
“I’ve definitely had people tweet horrible things at me and nothing gets done about it,” she told Fairfax. “If a guy says, ‘I’ll kill you’ it’s like, yeah, you probably could. There’s a listing of my gigs out there. If I joke that I’m going to chop the PM’s head off… as if? Mine is so clearly absurd.”
“It just came from a bit of frustration and silliness. Honestly, I was just laughing when I wrote it. The lack of humour annoys me.”
In a statement shared by fellow comedian Cameron James, Lucas said she had learnt not to make jokes about the Prime Minister “because it’s very serious, as opposed to the threats of rape and assault that women get from men on Twitter (which is fine because that never actually happens!!!)”.
Becky Lucas got permanently banned from Twitter & asked me to release this statement.
She also wishes to say that she owes me $200 and wants you all to know. pic.twitter.com/L72cF5s4ty
— Cameron James, That Snake 🐍 (@iamcameronjames) September 27, 2018
Back in August, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Blair Cotrell, a white supremacist who tweeted about raping a Sky News journalist. His account has since been restored.