Twitter should disable the accounts of people who falsely claim the complainers in unsuccessful sex crime prosecutions are “proven false witnesses” or “liars” or “conspirators” unless these complainers are convicted of perjury or another crime in relation to their testimony. 1/

2/ Why? First, cos it betrays a basic misunderstanding of how justice works - an acquittal is not evidence a witness or complainer perjured themselves. & 2nd it discourages other people who from coming forward and seeking justice.

3/ Your politics, whatever your politics are & your personal loyalty, to whomever that is, doesn’t trump justice. Your freedom of speech doesn’t Trumpist the right everybody else has to an accurately reported and fair judicial proceeding.

4/ I don’t expect Twitter will act against people who make false claims about the law or criminal proceedings. You’d like to think such misrepresentation would have consequences for any journalists who are engage in it.

5/. A verdict of not guilty is what it is, a verdict of not guilty for the accused, that the persecution in the eyes of a jury has failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. It’s not a guilty verdict for anybody who gave evidence against the accused. This is basic stuff.

6/ I think most of us know this. A few clearly pretend not to. People do sometimes perjure themselves and it’s important we can, where possible, deal with that. Randomly declaring people guilty of perjury who have not even been accused of the crime serves no noble purpose.

7/ My apologies for a rant. It was provoked by a quite shocking tweet I’m not going to publicise.