Anna Lo – the first person from an ethnic minority to be elected to Northern Ireland’s assembly – has told the BBC about an “offensive” and “pornographic” internet campaign against her.
Ms Lo, who is neither Catholic nor Protestant, stood for the Alliance Party and secured the fourth highest vote in the South Belfast constituency, despite being subjected to threats and racist abuse on the internet.
She was targeted by a neo-Nazi site called the White Loyalist Guestbook, as well as on the popular YouTube site. She told BBC World Service’s Outlook programme that the sites sprang up almost immediately after her nomination.
“It began quite mildly – I even laughed at one of the messages, which said ‘there are so many Chinks about she probably will be elected’ – it was a roundabout way of being quite positive,” she said.
“But it degenerated into something of a pornographic nature – they posted a picture of me, and later on a picture of two Oriental-looking women in the nude. They were linking me with prostitution. It was very offensive language.
“At that stage, the Alliance party contacted the police, who said they couldn’t do anything because there was no direct threat against my safety – which I thought was extraordinary.”
Loading ...
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
You must log in to post a comment.