Stewart Bint Author
  • Home
  • About
  • News
  • Anthologies
  • Non-Fiction
  • Stewart Bint's Blog
  • Store
  • Contact

The Truth About The Lies

9/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Okay, this was originally going to be quite a lengthy post, defending myself against a number of outlandish claims that have been perpetrated about me on Twitter for several years.

Then I thought…No, let’s not get carried away. So this will be considerably shorter than I anticipated. And I’m not going into detail here. But I will answer any questions anyone has about any aspect of them.

As far as I can ascertain, this is the extent of the claims.
  • Restraining orders are out against me. Not true.
  • I’ve been reported to the police, and the police have investigated me. Not true. I’ve never done anything to warrant police attention, and have never had any dealings with the police.
  • I’ve sent dick pictures to Twitter users. Not true. I’ve never done this.
  • I create sock puppet accounts to follow and harass people who’ve blocked me. Not true. I’ve never done this. I’ve only ever had one Twitter account, @Author SJB. (I did have access to a football club’s account from 2009 to 2014 for posting match reports when I covered their games for the local newspaper at that time).   
  • I access Twitter users’ timelines after they’ve blocked me, and follow their followers. Not true. I’ve never done this.
  • I’ve been involved in fraud. Not true.
  • I have links with paedophiles. Not true.
  • I have a foot fetish. Not true.  Yes, I go barefoot for my mental and physical wellbeing, but I don’t find the human foot remotely attractive, either male or female.
  • I tracked a teenager to his school after a disagreement on Twitter. Not true. (This “teenager” was actually a university graduate in his twenties, and Twitter permanently suspended his account for harassing me over a three month period).   

Yes, the lies hurt.

Yes, they could be damaging to me, if a lot of people believed them. It’s this point that’s led to me breaking my silence about the full extent of what I’ve put up with on Twitter for at least five years. But on the positive side, it was the inspiration for my critically-acclaimed short story The Twitter Bully, which was published in an independent anthology in 2015, and is the sign-off story in my own short story collection, Thunderlands.

I know that a number of people who block me on Twitter read my timeline, and tweet untruths about me, because a couple of friends occasionally send me screengrabs of their posts. In the past I’ve tried ignoring them, I’ve tried reasoning with them, I’ve tried presenting them with the facts, I’ve tried humour.

But a few months ago they tried a new technique. A Twitter friend, Mark Thomas (he’s NOT one of those who’s sent me screengrabs over the years) messaged me to say he’d been approached by an anonymous account and was told a number of what he described as “very disturbing things, documents, tweets, reports and claims ranging from grooming kids to fraud. What the fuck man?”

He confronted me and asked for an explanation. Once I explained the history with the people involved, Mark stepped away and didn’t want any involvement, but could see there was years of this happening.
 
Unfortunately, it seems some people do believe the claims. At around that time I was unfollowed by a few accounts, and blocked by others – including four people who I'd regarded as good Twitter friends. It hurt that they could simply believe such horrible things about me which aren’t true, especially as they didn’t even give me a chance to defend myself and show them the truth.

A particularly disturbing aspect of all this is that a new follower who subsequently blocked me, told me she’d been approached by a particular account and told a number of things about me.

At first I didn’t recognise the account name that she showed me. I later realised from the @ that the main name had changed since I did have contact with it more than three and a half years ago. That account had reported me to Twitter in January 2015 after I’d strongly responded to it over a number of tweets about, and to, a Community Interest Company I supported at the time, and Twitter suspended my account. I emailed Twitter with copies of the tweets I’d been responding to and my account was immediately restored, with an apology. That was the last time I had any dealings with that account…I’ve never seen any of its tweets since, nor been involved with it in any way. So I’m at a loss as to why it’s now commenting about me three and a half years later with no provocation from me.

My mental health is beginning to suffer as a result of people believing these claims. So, I’ll end by asking that if you, or anyone you know, have blocked me because of what you’ve been told, please give me the opportunity to show you the facts and the truth: ask me any question you wish about any aspect of what you’ve been told. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Stewart Bint supports the UK Sepsis Trust.

    Click here to donate.

    Author

    Stewart Bint is a novelist, magazine columnist and PR writer. 

    He lives with his wife, Sue, in Leicestershire in the UK, and has two children, Christopher and Charlotte, and a budgie called Alfie.

    Usually goes barefoot

    Archives

    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.