Soap Opera actor fired over old Tweets

[TSwizzle]

Another victim of the Twitterati thought police/lynch mob falls;

An Emmerdale actor has been fired from the programme over historical offensive tweets, ITV has confirmed. Shila Iqbal, who played Aiesha Richards, had only been made a series regular at the end of March. On Thursday, as news of her sacking was reported, Iqbal apologised for the tweets, which it is understood were posted in 2013 when she was 18 or 19 and studying at college in Rochdale. A spokeswoman for the soap said: “As a consequence of [historical] social media posts, Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale. The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.”

Teh Gruaniad


Apparently she had been having a bit of banter with friends on twatter and had used words that are verboten. Namely, the "N-word" and called someone gay ! *gasp* clutches at pearls !!

This is on the back of Israel Folau being sacked from his rugby association for his indiscretion of sending out a tweet or instagram about gays, sodomites, drunks, adulterers and general sinners will go to hell for their sins.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

That's dumb.

 

[repoman]

can't find the uncensored tweet. Also, what is the context? Was a black guy bantering with her and calling her a paki? Who the fuck knows?

 

[prideandfall]

crazy, it's almost like if you end up in a career where 90% of your job description is "be appealing to a mass audience" then doing or saying things that are counter to the sensibilities of the masses decreases your value in your position.
i don't care what the context is, there is no justifiable reason for anyone in the regional US to ever use "nigger" in direct reference to another human being, so if your entire job is to be acceptable i see no problem with firing someone for doing something that has been deemed unacceptable.

if this were a cashier at a grocery store or something then ok there's an argument to be made about not being held accountable for every second of your life to maintain gainful employment, but in this case... we've been scrutinizing celebrities for what they say and do since long before twitter existed, so i don't see this as being any different from how mel gibson was effectively black listed, or sean penn, or joe cocker back in the day.

 

[bilby]

crazy, it's almost like if you end up in a career where 90% of your job description is "be appealing to a mass audience" then doing or saying things that are counter to the sensibilities of the masses decreases your value in your position.
i don't care what the context is, there is no justifiable reason for anyone in the regional US to ever use "nigger" in direct reference to another human being, so if your entire job is to be acceptable i see no problem with firing someone for doing something that has been deemed unacceptable.

if this were a cashier at a grocery store or something then ok there's an argument to be made about not being held accountable for every second of your life to maintain gainful employment, but in this case... we've been scrutinizing celebrities for what they say and do since long before twitter existed, so i don't see this as being any different from how mel gibson was effectively black listed, or sean penn, or joe cocker back in the day.

Neither Rochdale, nor Esholt (where location shooting for Emmerdale takes place), nor Burley (the suburb of Leeds where studio shooting of Emmerdale takes place) could reasonably be described as 'the regional US'.

The actor and her (now former) employer are in the north of England.

The thing I find most astonishing about this is that Emmerdale is still in production. It's amazing the shit people will watch, just because it's on TV.

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

Another victim of the Twitterati thought police/lynch mob falls;

An Emmerdale actor has been fired from the programme over historical offensive tweets, ITV has confirmed. Shila Iqbal, who played Aiesha Richards, had only been made a series regular at the end of March. On Thursday, as news of her sacking was reported, Iqbal apologised for the tweets, which it is understood were posted in 2013 when she was 18 or 19 and studying at college in Rochdale. A spokeswoman for the soap said: “As a consequence of [historical] social media posts, Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale. The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.”

Teh Gruaniad


Apparently she had been having a bit of banter with friends on twatter and had used words that are verboten. Namely, the "N-word" and called someone gay ! *gasp* clutches at pearls !!

This is on the back of Israel Folau being sacked from his rugby association for his indiscretion of sending out a tweet or instagram about gays, sodomites, drunks, adulterers and general sinners will go to hell for their sins.

These are two very different situations. One is a barely adult unknown teenager, whose comment is basically personal. The other is a famous sportsperson who made a very public comment targeted at specific groups of people (with a threat) that was in breach of a contract that he had made with a sporting body.

 

[repoman]

He said they would go to hell, not that he would sent them there.

Still, really screwed up.

 

[Gun Nut]

I heard YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook were combining into one service... It will be called You Twit Face.

If you speak publicly, either in person or via internet, then those words will represent you forever, regardless of environmental, temporal, or political context. That's what you get for participating in social media and providing your intellectual property for free. Live by facebook, die by facebook.