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Tweet to Dragons winger Ashton Hewitt the reason for Katie Hopkins' Twitter ban

(Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

Dragons winger Ashton Hewitt has revealed that he was the reason why outspoken columnist Katie Hopkins was permanently removed from Twitter recently. The controversial commentator, who had 1.1 million followers, made headlines last week after receiving the ban. 

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25-year-old Dragons player Ashton shared a Tweet on Tuesday, saying: “Didn’t realise I was actually the reason for Katie Hopkins getting suspended from Twitter.”

It has since been revealed by Hopkins that she was banned by the social media platform for a comment she made on a post by Hewitt about her. In response, a statement from Twitter said:

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Ashton Hewitt took on Leicester’s Ellie Genge in the recent RugbyPass Fifa football tournament

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      Ashton Hewitt took on Leicester’s Ellie Genge in the recent RugbyPass Fifa football tournament

      “Keeping Twitter safe is a top priority for us – abuse and hateful conduct have no place on our service and we will continue to take action when our rules are broken. In this case, the account has been permanently suspended for violations of our hateful conduct policy.”

      The Tweet in question is this one by the winger: 

      Hewitt then shared the comment that Hopkins made: 

      The son of a Welsh mother and a British Jamaican father, Hewitt has been vocal on social media during the Black Lives Matter movement – although he had not directly clashed with Hopkins before. Hopkins also shared a video to explain her comment, saying it was “a script reference from Blackadder”. 

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      Hewitt told the BBC Scrum V podcast earlier this month he is not prepared to put up with racism anymore. “I have, and I am sure many young players from ethnic backgrounds have, put up with what is seen as banter and seen it as nothing,” he said.

      “I have been through that in my career. As I delve through deeper issues in history and what comes behind certain stereotypes, I see the importance of addressing it and not letting those stereotypes continue. I have been guilty of letting things slide, but at the time I did not think too much of it.

      “When I was younger I did not feel I had the confidence to cause an upset in a predominantly white environment. Since I have got older and more educated on the history of racism, I have taken a view it can’t be acceptable.”

       

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      TokoRFC 11 minutes ago
      Super Rugby Pacific's greatest season stained by one playoff game

      Mate, what TK and Ben Smith are forgetting is that a comp needs more games that matter, and its a balancing act getting that right.

      They haven’t understood that having so many teams fighting over the 6th spot is what fueled the back end of the regular season. Not to mention the games to decide the top end of the finals seeding. It would have been a bit flat if the 4 bottom teams were out of the running with a few rounds still to go.


      The current finals format is a bit funny to get used to, I agree. But if they sort out the scheduling guff where the BRU vs HUR match could have been a non knockout game, as well as giving more punishment for the lucky looser (dropping them to 4th seed in the semis). The current format creates more meaningful matches than the alternatives.


      Some examples of finals formats:


      Top 6 14 matches that matter

      With the improvements above, the current system creates 6 competitive finals, plus say 8 matches in the regular season that are effectively knockout games. 14 games that definitely matter. Plus some games to decide the finals seeding in there too.


      Top 4 10 matches that matter

      3 finals matches and say 6 games to fight over the top 4. At a best case you may get 12 crucial games


      If offered the choice, the sponsors, the broadcasters, the fans, the players and the all blacks selectors would all take more meaningful games over any alternative format.

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