Twitter deletes Nigerian-born professor’s post wishing Queen Elizabeth II ‘excruciating’ death

Twitter has deleted the tweets by Uju Anya, a lecturer at the Carnegie Mellon University, USA, over her remarks regarding Queen Elizabeth II of England.

The microblogging site deleted the message hours after it was posted on Tuesday.

“This tweet violated the Twitter rules,” the micro-blogging platform noted.

A few hours before the Queen’s death, Anya had criticised the late monarch in a series of tweets and wished her “excruciating pain”.

The Nigerian-born academic had accused the late monarch of sponsoring the “genocide” that led to her family being displaced.

“I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,” the now-deleted tweets read in part.

If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.

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— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) September 8, 2022

Her tweets generated thousands of mixed reactions. While many people condemned her, others agreed with what she wrote.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, was one of those who reacted to Anya’s tweets.

“This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow,” he tweeted.

pic.twitter.com/THsxIwyeEX

— Pablo Alakobar 🇩🇪 (@the_popemichael) September 8, 2022

Carnegie University, which also reacted to the development, had said although it believes in “free expression”, it does not condone the views expressed by the professor.

“We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uju Anya today on her personal social media account,” the post reads.

“Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster.”

A statement regarding recent social media posts by Uju Anya. pic.twitter.com/NinpPa4rZg

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— Carnegie Mellon University (@CarnegieMellon) September 8, 2022

Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday. She was aged 96 and was the longest-serving British monarch at the time of her death.