J.K. Rowling slams Twitter ‘bullies’

“Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling fired back at a number of Twitter “bullies” who lobbed personal attacks at the author after last week’s elections in Britain.

Rowling received a stream of abusive tweets after the election results, mostly from supporters of the Scottish National Party, who support independence for Scotland. Rowling, who opposes Scottish independence, is a supporter of the Labor Party, which was soundly defeated by SNP and Conservative candidates in the election.

Rowling used her Twitter account to respond to some of her attackers, telling one, “The Internet doesn’t just offer opportunities for misogynistic abuse, you know. Penis enlargers can also be bought discreetly.” The account to which she was responding has since been suspended by Twitter.

She also credited Conservative Party supporters for not harassing her, writing to one Twitter user, “All abuse I’m getting is UKIP or Scottish Nationalist. All Tories here saying ‘freedom of speech.’ Credit where credit’s due.” “UKIP” refers to the far-right UK Independence Party; “Tories” are supporters of the Conservatives.

In a series of tweets to another user, Rowling said she was growing tired of the barrage of abuse on Twitter. “This week, though, my personal line has been crossed,” she wrote, “with being called traitor ... the least of the abuse. I feel no responsibility to hush up that kind of behaviour to protect the image of any political party. It isn’t always fun being a famous woman on Twitter and I believe in standing up to bullies.”

It doesn’t look like Rowling will be quitting the social network any time soon, though. After fans sent her messages of support and invitations for her to move to their countries, accompanied with photographs, she tweeted, “If you could all see the amount of love and support flooding my timeline right now, you would be - as I am - overwhelmed. #FaithRestored ... Looking at those beautiful pictures reminds me how big the world is and how many more decent people there are than not, so thank you xxx.”