Katie Hopkins gets publicly pranked by YouTuber and has her Twitter account suspended

Controversial commentator Katie Hopkins has had her Twitter account suspended for violating the company’s anti-hate policy while also being publicly pranked by YouTuber Josh Pieters

The Twitter account of the controversial Katie Hopkins has been suspended for violating the social media giant’s anti-hate policy.

Twitter said the right-wing commentator has been temporarily locked out of her account. Speaking to the BBC, a spokesperson for Twitter said it was investigating complaints from anti-racism campaigners that Hopkins tweets constituted hate speech.

The spokesperson said: “Keeping Twitter safe is a top priority for us – abuse and harassment have no place on the service… These rules apply to everyone using our service – regardless of the account involved.”

With over 1 million followers, Ms Hopkins often tweets anti-immigration messages along with Pro-Brexit and Pro-Trump ramblings. President Trump has retweeted her account many times which saw an increase in followers for the former Apprentice contestant.

While her Twitter account is still listed, all of her previous tweets have been removed.

Fake award

The drama didn’t stop there, however.

YouTuber Josh Pieters along with Archie Manners played an elaborate prank on Hopkins by telling her she had won an award from the Capetown Collective for Freedom of Speech. The organisation was fake, as was the award. Nevertheless, Hopkins was convinced and flew to Prague this week to accept the award.

Pieters makes a speech filled with brazen statements such as “without being able to mock other people, without being able to attack people, we are not free,” and “the battle against the woke brigade is being won”. Hopkins is seen clapping along to the remarks.

In the 10-minute video, Hopkins is seen accepting a trophy from Pieters in front of a screen which says the name of the award, Campaign to Unify the Nation trophy. The name spells the ‘C-word’ very clearly but Hopkins doesn’t notice.

In what is the most disturbing part of the video, the former Daily Mail columnist makes a speech filled with not only racist rhetoric but with comments made towards those who suffer from epilepsy.

Pieters comments that he was afraid he had been too harsh on Hopkins but then her speech changed his mind. Snippets of the acceptance speech are shown in the video with lines such as “If you call ‘Mohammed’ in a school playground in the UK, 2000 f—ing kids come running, and you don’t want any of them” and “Epileptics are all weirdos, they’re up there with the Asians”.

Speaking to Insider, Pieters said it was very difficult to stay in character throughout. “I had to go to the bathroom a few times because I couldn’t keep it together… It was a very surreal, in a bad way, night. I felt like we were teleported into an alternative reality where we were all billionaires sitting around a table, drinking wine, and being racist.”

Pieters is known for creating daring and original videos which are used as social experiments. He told Insider: “I think we always try to, not only from a creative point of view, but also from a slightly moral point of view, not completely dupe someone by breaking the law or doing something really wrong…We always try to give people a bit of a chance.”

Read more: WATCH: Kildare man shares a video of his evacuation from Wuhan, China

Read more: Coronavirus confirmed in the UK – here’s everything we know so far

Read more: ‘In 12 hours she was dead’: Roald Dahl’s letter to anti-vaxxers following his daughter’s death