About

Barry Stanton is the online handle of two anonymous troll accounts that went viral on X / Twitter in 2018 and 2024 with their posts, memes and AI-generated images expressing hateful rhetoric towards minorities and, for the latter account, toward Indians and Indian immigrants in particular. After the latter account was suspended in late August 2024, the suspension became a subject of discussions and memes on X, with some users making commemorative posts with the "#FreeBarry" hashtag.

Online History

Both troll accounts have notably used a photograph of Worcester Labor Councilor Nigel Addison, who was 62 years old in 2018, as their profile picture.^[1]

2017 Barry Stanton (@BarryStanton64)

In 2017, the troll account @BarryStanton64 became active on X / Twitter, pretending to be a British father and posting racist quips about Indians, Muslims and other minority groups in Great Britain (example shown below).

After going viral on the platform, the account was suspended in March 2018, with some users making commemorative posts about it with the hashtag "#FreeBarryStanton" (example^[2] shown below).

On March 23rd, 2018, the British tabloid Mirror^[1] posted an article about the account's suspension and the person whose photograph was used as its profile picture (snippet shown below). The day before, it was also covered by Worcester News.^[11]

2024 Barry Stanton (@BarryStantonGBP)

In 2024, the X / Twitter account Barry Stanton (@barrystantonGBP) became active on the platform. Similarly to the original @BarryStanton64 account, the new account initially relied on a persona and posted quips and memes critical of and hateful towards minority groups (example^[3] post shown below).

In August 2024, the account went viral on X^[4][5] as it started posting AI-generated images based on memes and stereotypes about Indians and Indian migrants, and on the Poo in the Loo and Designated Shitting Streets memes in particular (example shown below).

The account subsequently drew massive attention on X, accumulating over 185,000 followers by the time it was suspended in late August 2024. On August 29th, after several prominent Indian accounts called for the @BarryStantonGBP's suspension (shown below),^[6] including reports of the account to Indian authorities, the account was suspended^[7] on X / Twitter.

The suspension was followed by multiple posts and memes in which X users expressed their support for the account, with the hashtag "#FreeBarry" trending on X in late August 2024 (example^[8] shown below).

On August 29th, 2024, Barry Stanton wrote on Telegram^[9] that he would not be making a new account on X and would instead wait for his account to be unbanned (post shown below). On that day, posts by several copycat accounts went viral on X^[10] / Twitter.

Search Interest

External References