Twitter, Censorship and the mass murderer David Cleary (Soldier F). By David Burke.

The musician Feargal McCann has followed the saga revolving around the mass murderer David Cleary. McCann’s father Joe, was shot  by paratroopers in 1972, only ten weeks after Bloody Sunday.

Cleary, better known as ‘Soldier F’, was one of those responsible for the Bloody Sunday massacre of innocent unarmed civilians. Cleary shot Patrick Doherty while he was lying on the ground crawling away from him. The bullet tore up the man’s spine. As he lay crying out in pain, Barney McGuigan, stepped forward with a white handkerchief looking to help him. Cleary dropped to one knee, aimed his rifle and shot McGuigan in the head.

Cleary was named in the House of Commons by the leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood, last year. This circumvented a ban on naming him which had been issued by a court in Belfast. Last week Cleary was named by Peadar Tóibín in the Dail.

The ban does not apply in the Republic of Ireland.

Village reported Deputy Tobin’s speech later that night.  Feargal McCann read the story and transmitted a tweet about it. Twitter has now locked McCann’s account. In addition, it is stipulating that by deleting the tweet, McCann acknowledges that he ‘violated’ Twitter rules.

Twitter might point out that there is a court order in place which prohibits the naming of Cleary, albeit one that only applies in the UK. No doubt, Twitter might argue further that since tweets are international, McCann’s transmission could have been read inside the UK, and hence they had no choice but to shut the musician’s account down. The consequences of such an argument could be far-reaching.

If, for example, a Russian Court bans any coverage of Pussy Riot or other dissidents, will Twitter enforce any such ban?

And what about Kim Jong-un? If he or a North Korean court banned the naming of the assassins of his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam,  would Twitter lock the account of a person in Ireland who named the killers?

Or is Twitter merely going to enforce injunctions about a mass murderer like Cleary who shot innocent Irish people?

The pages of Village are open to Twitter to respond.

Eamon de Valera invented the concept of the ’empty formula’ to get around having to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown in 1927. Those suspended or locked down by Twitter might draw inspiration from this to get around Twitter’s censorship of their accounts for naming Cleary. It could be called ‘Empty Twitter formula’.

OTHER STORIES ABOUT BLOODY SUNDAY, THE BALLYMURPHY MASSACRE, BRIGADIER FRANK KITSON AND COLONEL DEREK WILFORD ON THIS WEBSITE:

David Cleary, mass murderer, aka Soldier F, named in Ireland’s parliament.

Bloody Sunday: Brigadier Frank Kitson and MI5 denounced in Dail Eireann

The covert plan to smash the IRA in Derry on Bloody Sunday by David Burke

Soldier F’s Bloody Sunday secrets. David Cleary knows enough to blackmail the British government.

Learning to kill

Colin Wallace: Bloody Sunday, a very personal perspective

Lying like a trooper. Internment, murder and vilification. Did Brigadier Kitson instigate the Ballymurphy massacre smear campaign? Where was Soldier F and his ‘gallant’ death squad during it?

Another bloody mess. Frank Kitson’s contribution to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 300,000 have died in Afghanistan since 1979.

Lying like a trooper. Internment, murder and vilification. Did Brigadier Kitson instigate the Ballymurphy massacre smear campaign? Where was Soldier F and his ‘gallant’ death squad during it?

A Foul Unfinished Business. The shortcomings of, and plots against, Saville’s Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

Kitson’s Private Army: the thugs, killers and racists who terrorised Belfast and Derry. Soldier F was one of their number.

Soldier F and Brigadier Kitson’s elite ‘EFGH’ death squad: a murderous dirty-tricks pattern is emerging which links Ballymurphy with Bloody Sunday. A second soldier involved in both events was ‘mentioned in despatches’ at the behest of Kitson for his alleged bravery in the face of the enemy.

Mentioned in Despatches. Brigadier Kitson and Soldier F were honoured in the London Gazette for their gallantry in the face of the enemy during the internment swoops of August 1971.

Soldier F, the heartless Bloody Sunday killer, is named.

Mission accomplished. The unscrupulous judge who covered-up the Bloody Sunday murders. Soldier F and other paratroopers have been protected by the British State for five decades. None of them now face prosecution. This perversion of justice began with the connivance of the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, John Widgery, a former British Army brigadier, Freemason and oath-breaker.

Counterinsurgency war criminals, liars and cowards: Kitson and Wilford, the brigadier and colonel who led the soldiers who perpetrated the Ballymurphy Massacre.

Brigadier Kitson’s motive for murdering unarmed civilians in Ballymurphy.

The McGurk’s Bar cover-up. Heath’s Faustian pact. How a British prime minister covered up a UVF massacre in the hope of acquiring Unionist votes to enable the UK join the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the EU.