The Irish Mail on Sunday

Anti-Saudi Toon fans abused by ‘troll bots’

- By Robert Dineen

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 called 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, founder of NUFC Fans Against Sportswash­ing, has been 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 Sportsmail. ‘Recently set up accounts, called NUFC then a load of numbers, with messages that come in waves. Some of them have taken photos of me and say I live in Spain etc.’

Hird’s group are planning a silent protest outside St James’ Park ahead of next Saturday’s game against Chelsea.

Offending posts and Twitter accounts 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 apparent Newcastle fans which included personal insults and comments rubbishing his group’s motivation­s for their protest, claiming they were secret Sunderland fans.

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