A parody website allowing users to make a fake “handwritten” London Underground sign has been taken down because Transport for London was concerned it was being used to circulate racist messages.
Yorkshire-based developer Tim Waters tweeted on Thursday that he had been asked by TfL to delete the website due to concerns that people believed the images were real.
I've been asked by a lawyer from TFL to take down my funny website https://t.co/jnS3Esmg9d
— Tim (@tim_waters) December 10, 2015
Due to threats by TfL lawyers I'm deleting fun parody site https://t.co/jnS3Esmg9d & GitHub repo https://t.co/fAGv2bEj1H later today :-(
— Tim (@tim_waters) December 11, 2015
In a statement, TFL said it asked Waters to take down the site because it believed it was being used to spread “racially offensive messages”, which looked as though they had been written by members of LU staff.
A TfL spokesperson said: “We have asked the website owner not to use the image of a London Underground customer information sign in this way. It may not have been their intention, but we believe the images created by people using this site have the potential to cause harm and distress to passengers or members of the public who see them. There are instances where they have contained racially offensive messages.”
Most recently, the tool was used to create a sign with the hashtag #YouAintNoMuslimBruv, which went viral after the attack at Leytonstone station last weekend. It is not certain who created it, but it was soon shared thousands of times on Twitter by multiple users, some of whom congratulated TFL for its apparent show of solidarity:
#YouAintNoMuslimBruv #lovelondon well done @TfL pic.twitter.com/gtJbifTRmK
— Peter Holt (@peterholt99) December 6, 2015
You just have to love London. #YouAintNoMuslimBruv pic.twitter.com/ji63Gcwn2X
— Philip Montague (@get_sme) December 6, 2015
After Waters announced he would be deleting the site, his followers reacted via their own fake tube signs:
@tim_waters pic.twitter.com/ADe4ZYovo5
— McC (@MVMCCU) December 11, 2015
@tim_waters Miserable gits. pic.twitter.com/fdy5sppoxn
— Jon Stockill (@JonS_WF1) December 10, 2015
@tim_waters pic.twitter.com/6vlfTl4qam
— Kristen Noble Keegan (@HistoryLiveBlog) December 10, 2015
When contacted by the Guardian, Waters said he would be writing a blogpost with a scan of the letter sent to him by TfL.
He created the tool in 2013, about the same time that the signs, both fake and real, began circulating on social media. The tool was soon featured by a number of publications and has cropped up in viral tweets over the past two years.
Handwritten London Underground signs have been a source of joy on social media for some time now. In an example of a real one, the sign at Tufnell Park station has sometimes been decorated by a Doctor Who fan:
Someone at Tufnell Park tube station bloody loves Doctor Who pic.twitter.com/nu3KE5RheN (pic via @trixie)
— Elena Cresci (@elenacresci) August 7, 2014
Other stations opt for a quote of the day – Kennington is among them:
Monday 30th November 2015 #ThoughtOfTheDay #Quote #MarieShear #Feminism #RadicalNotion #Women #People #Equality pic.twitter.com/YZGrdJC1z2
— Kennington Station (@Kennington_Tube) November 30, 2015
But there are many, many fakes. It’s fairly easy to tell if it’s a fake – generally, they all have the same handwriting, use the same image and are usually attributed to an unnamed tube station.
