Mystery "MoronWatch" tweeter - Camden cyberactivist nominated for ‘Shorty’ award
Published: 24 March 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY
A MYSTERY tweeter and blogger nominated for an international award for his online work exposing prejudice is operating from Camden, the New Journal has learned.
The author of “MoronWatch” will discover on Monday evening whether he has won a star prize for best use of Twitter after being named as the only Briton among six people nominated at the Shorty’s Awards.
The aim of his Tweets is to use online conversations to expose people he regards as bigoted or racist. The awards ceremony in New York celebrates how people use the social network for discussion and MoronWatch, popular for targeting controversial politicians and commentators often with far-right views, scored enough nominations to make the final selection.
A panel of judges and Twitter users, bizarrely including former rapper MC Hammer, will review the work and choose the winner.
Current topics on the MoronWatch blog include comparisons with the reaction to the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, while on Twitter MoronWatch boasts it follows the bigoted “so you don’t have to”.
The author, whose identity is kept under wraps, voted Liberal Democrat at the last general election but resolved to look elsewhere after the party formed a coalition with the Conservatives.
He told the New Journal that his “cyberactivism” was a natural continuation of campaigning he did in the 1980s, although then it was done with fly-posting rather than computers. He said he is bombarded with suggestions of who to add to the account every day, including politicians and columnists from both sides of the Atlantic.
“In America you find there is a bit more hostility and they don’t hold back,” said the secret author. He said his main concerns were racism and Islamophobia, which he compares to the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s.
He added: “There was a wafer thin difference between what the Far Left and Skinheads were worried about in the 1980s, so it’s more than just saying look at the English Defence League – aren’t they all thick? The problem is engaging with them. If people talked to them they might realise we all have the same concerns about housing and unemployment.”
MoronWatch, which is shortlisted for a Shorty alongside four Americans and a Brazilian, began on Twitter last year and has thousands of followers.