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Channels on the messaging app Telegram with almost 35,000 followers have been used to spread anti-vax information and to threaten broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
Sky News has found that people linked to these groups have also targeted doctors, nurses, teachers, and local councillors with letters accusing them of “genocide”.
On Sunday, some of these people delivered a letter to the home of Jeremy Vine in west London. In one video posted on Telegram, two men are shown talking to his wife at the front door of their family home.
In subsequent videos, one of the men is filmed explaining that he gave her a “letter of liability” for Vine’s role as a journalist at the BBC covering coronavirus stories. These men do not appear to have threatened Vine or his family – but in follow-up posts, others on Telegram, who are not believed to be these men, used threatening and abusive language about the journalist and linked him with Nazi iconography.
It follows a segment on the Jeremy Vine Show broadcast last Monday that focused on the take-up of COVID-19 vaccines. The panel discussed whether unvaccinated footballers should be banned following speculation in the press about high-profile footballers refusing vaccines.
Vine took a call from a viewer who believed that it is a personal choice for someone to get a vaccine. In an attempt to continue the discussion with panellist Angela Epstein, he then said: “I guess in the end Angela, we either allow this or we end up holding people down and jabbing them by force.”
A clip of this statement was posted on Twitter by a user without the full context, making it appear as if Vine was advocating for this policy. It was then retweeted almost 500 times and viewed over 50,000 times. Copies of the video were also shared across the platform and into groups on the messaging app Telegram.
Clips like this…
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Source : skynews
