Harry Potter author weighs in on Fingal Libraries Twitter storm

Leading UK author JK Rowling took part in a local controversy last week as Fingal County Council’s Twitter page was suspended over concerns it was following a number of ‘transphobic’ accounts.

Local Green Party councilor Karen Power and Dublin 15 Green Party councilor Daniel Whooley have drawn the council’s attention to “concerning” online activity on the council’s libraries Twitter account.

The reports led Fingal County Council to suspend the Twitter account on September 21 and also block several other accounts.

Accounts that Fingal’s Libraries followed included allegedly “far-right” users and the Twitter account of author JK Rowling, who has previously been implicated in “anti-trans” allegations.

A Tweet from Cllr Power on Sept. 21 stated, “Primarily concerned about the accounts @Fingalcoco @fingallibraries is following, I will raise this immediately with Council officials.”

Cllr Power and Cllr Whooley’s involvement in the issue prompted further comment, with many verbally attacking them for their stance on the matter.

Comments following the suspension of the Fingal Libraries Twitter account included: “FFS censorship is alive and thriving in Ireland. Big little country” and: “Are you now going to burn library books that do not support your ideological positions on gender, sexual orientation, history, science, social studies, geography? Where does it end?

Upon learning of the controversy, author JK Rowling tweeted: “Library was also tracking my account. Am I included in your general statement?”, while The Sunday Times ran an article with the headline: “Libraries in trouble for following JK Rowling on Twitter.”

A statement released by Fingal County Council read: “On Wednesday, September 21, the decision was made to temporarily suspend the Fingal Libraries Twitter account in order for it to review activity on the account and whether the account had been hacked. .

“Upon review of the account, no evidence of unauthorized external activity was found on the account, and it has now been reactivated.

“As part of the process to get the account back up and running as quickly as possible, we are currently taking steps to ensure that the account will be able to display a blue Verified badge to reinforce its authenticity.”

The statement continued: “Along with this, the Libraries team will undertake a review of the policy and procedures for following other Twitter user accounts. During this review, we will remove any accounts we have previously followed.

“Once a policy has been adopted, we will then begin to rebuild in accordance with those guidelines. This will begin in the next few days.”

The board said “no comment” would be made on the content, statements made or positions held in the matter associated with the account suspension.

The statement states that all Fingal Libraries “are well-regarded public facilities that operate as open, inclusive, safe, apolitical and neutral democratic spaces where all citizens, regardless of education or views, are welcome.”

“Similarly,” the statement concluded, Fingal County Council was a state agency and, as an “employer of choice, strongly supports diversity and inclusion.”

Cllr Power was not available for comment.