sport news Newcastle protest fans 'trolled by Saudi bots' trends now
Newcastle fans planning to protest against the club's Saudi ownership have been threatened and abused by social media accounts that have been linked to the country's ruling regime.
Members of NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing have been described as racist, insulted and threatened with physical abuse for attempting to hold the Saudi state to account over its human rights record.
Digital-media experts say the abuse is typical of the activity carried out by social-media accounts linked to an 'army' of professional trolls working for a state-run operation in Riyad.
John Hird, the founder of the NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing, has been individually targeted, with the bot accounts lifting photographs from his various social-media accounts and sharing them online alongside posts attempting to dismiss his status as a genuine Newcastle fan. The trolls have also disseminated information relating to where he lives.
'They are obviously Saudi bots,' Hird told the MoS. 'Recently set up accounts, called NUFC then a load of numbers, with messages that come in waves.
Newcastle fans protesting club's Saudi ownership have been targeted by professional trolls
'Some of them have taken photos of me and say I live in Spain etc. They praise the Saudi owners and say we and the campaign are definitely Sunderland fans.'
Hird's group are planning a silent protest against the Saudi ownership outside St James' Park ahead of next Saturday's Premier League game against Chelsea.
He showed the MoS some of the offending social-media posts and Twitter accounts. They included several anonymous accounts created in the past two months, each with either one or no followers, the typical profile of bot accounts.
Hird also shared abusive posts from apparently legitimate Newcastle fans, which included personal insults and comments rubbishing his group's motivations for their protest, claiming they were secret Sunderland fans.
Hird's group are planning a silent protest against the Saudi ownership outside St James' Park ahead of next Saturday's Premier League game against Chelsea
Another comment on a forum entitled The Independent Voice of Newcastle United Since 1988 encouraged supporters to give Hird and his allies 'a good hiding' at the protest.
'As we warned would happen, it's not just the case of NUFC fans sitting on the fence,' Hird said. 'The worrying aspect of the ongoing Saudi ownership of the club is that, not only have they managed to neutralise the majority of fans regarding their human rights abuses, they've managed to get a minority of fans to actually defend them and speak up for them. That's why we have to
