This morning human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger repeatedly tweeted a link to a list of MPs who voted for the Iraq war.
While the error is certainly ironic given Jagger's plea to "read it carefully", her mistake was probably made due to the style of the website, which attempts to ape Wikipedia. It does not openly state its views – however, the note section includes a number of problematic descriptions.
Labour MPs Clive Betts, David Borrow, and Chris Bryant, for example, are described as "openly homosexual". Ivor Caplin MP is described as a "Jew" and Labour peer Paul Boateng as a "Negro".
As of 2015, Metapedia is available in 18 languages. It propagates the views of the Swedish right-wing extremists who set it up through systemic bias and insinuation – its entry on Hitler, for example, contains a section entitled "Less politically correct views of Hitler", with one of its first links a reference to the Holocaust-denying historian David Irving.
In 2009 it was investigated by the Swedish chancellor of justice following allegations of criminal racial agitation in the aforementioned article about Hitler. However, there was no prosecution: The chancellor stated it did not "contain any dissociation from Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic views, but neither does it contain any sympathy for those views, even if it would appear that the author of the article has a positive attitude towards Hitler".
Jagger's tweet prompted a furious reaction from high-profile media figures.
Are we to weigh up 'Jew,' 'married to Jew,' 'negro,' 'openly homosexual,' in this careful reading/understanding? https://t.co/RdE1aPzfSK
Couldn't agree more https://t.co/mOXWnBBy0K
@BiancaJagger @jeremycorbyn Have you actually read the racist, sexist and homophobic link you're sharing? You're better than this, Bianca.
Jagger has now apologised.
I'm terribly , sorry for posting a despicable tweet by mistake, I posted it at 4.15 in the morning and didn't properly read its content .
I'm mortified, I thought it was a list of members of Parliament who voted against the war in Iraq. You all know I am against racism, bigotry
I shall learn a lesson not to post a tweet at 4am and I reschedule it, especially from a website I couldn't read properly. Please forgive me