Twitter account behind ‘abusive’ tweet targeting prominent doctor no longer active

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino had described the tweet as part of a slew of attacks offering a 'bounty' to surveil health-care workers.

The Twitter user behind an “abusive” tweet against one of the country’s most prominent doctors appears to have deactivated their account following a recent outcry, which saw Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino appeal directly to the Canadian head of the social media giant for action.

Mendicino urged Twitter on Tuesday evening to address a tweet that was widely described by health journalists and health-care workers as “abusive” and a threat against Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association.

Smart had said on Dec. 22 that the social media giant told her the tweet “did not violate their rules.”

“Far too often, public health doctors and frontline healthcare workers are subject to bullying, intimidation, and harassment. An increasing volume of that abuse is occurring online. The pandemic has accelerated and intensified these trends,” Mendicino wrote in a letter to Paul Burns, the managing director of Twitter Canada, in the Tuesday appeal for action against the account.

“For companies like Twitter, having rules in place regarding the use of a social platform is vital. The public should feel confident these rules will be applied.”

The tweet in question was posted to Smart’s Twitter timeline on Dec. 22 by a user who claimed that “a group of us who can’t stand you have been watching you and your family for weeks,” before asking Smart: “are you scared you are next?”

The tweet also claimed the people watching Smart were “biding our time.”

Mendicino wrote that the tweet appeared to be part of a slew of recent posts offering a “bounty” for people to surveil health-care workers in the hope of catching them breaking COVID-19 protocols.