ByMICHAEL STARR
Updated:

An anonymous Twitter account instrumental in exposing antisemitism in the UK Labour Party was suspended by Twitter on Tuesday.

The anonymous account suspended by Twitter, GnasherJew, was a leading source of allegations of antisemitism against the UK Labour Party and its then leader Jeremy Corbyn during the 2019 general election. 

"We are unaware of why they were suspended or for how long," said David Collier, a fellow UK counter-antisemitism activist.

"To British Jews the anti-racist activists behind GnasherJew are heroes," said Joseph Cohen, head of the UK Pro-Israel group Israel Advocacy Movement. "Without their forensic research, the true extent of antisemitism within Corbyn's Labour Party would have remained hidden. They identified and publicized Labour members, councilors and politicians guilty of anti-Jewish racism. These stories made national headlines and unquestionably contributed to Corbyn's crushing electoral defeat."

The account documented incidents of antisemitism within the Labour Party, and was allegedly run by an unknown amount of disillusioned Labour activists. "They remained anonymous out of fear for their safety," Collier noted. Opponents have claimed that the account is operated by Conservative Israel supporters running a political smear campaign.

Many attribute Labour's unprecedented defeat in the 2019 UK elections to the allegations of widespread and unaddressed antisemitism within the party. In late 2020, The Equality and Human Rights Commission of the UK released a report finding that Labour had failed to tackle antisemitism among its ranks and had violated equality laws. Jeremy Corbyn was ousted from his position as leader in part because of this scandal.

Twitter has received backlash in the past over its weak record on removal of antisemitism and racism from its platform. Previously, British Jews launched a massive online campaign on Twitter called #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate, over Twitter's failure to remove the account of the rapper Wiley after he violated Twitter's community standards on antisemitism with multiple posts.

"Twitter has an antisemitism problem, and it's a problem they refuse to address," Said Cohen. "Jewish anti-racists like GnasherJew are shut down for highlighting bigotry."

GnasherJew was temporarily suspended in the past when Twitter misidentified the account's profile picture, a yellow star, as a hate symbol. 
Aaron Reich, Amy Spiro and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.