THE SNP Government is conducting a security review after an official social media account attacked Conservative politicians.
Twitter ‘likes’ criticising Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson were deleted after being drawn to the Government’s attention.
The Government’s Twitter account for health has over 40,000 followers and has been a valuable resource for information on coronavirus.
It has provided pandemic health advice and offered updates to the public on new developments in the fight against covid-19.
However, as it is a Government account paid for by public money, the feed must not make party political points.
Earlier this week, the account ‘liked’ a series of tweets from external users that were overtly political.
One of the tweets stated: “So sad you hate Scotland having its own Parliament and prefer to be ruled by posh Eton educated millionaires, because @borisjohnson really cares about you [smiley face] Stay Alert #ThankYouNicola.”
Another tweet liked by the taxpayer-funded account told Davidson to “bog off”.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are aware of some erroneous activity on the official Scottish Government health Twitter account during the early hours of Thursday morning.
“As soon as we were made aware of the issue we deleted all activity during this time and reset passwords on the account. We are also reviewing our security measures to avoid future incidents.”
Scottish Tory deputy leader Annie Wells said: “It’s extremely worrying that an official Scottish Government account should fawn over the toxic cybernat community.
“The SNP must take steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again. The last thing cybernats need is encouragement from official SNP channels.”
