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David Coburn, the Ukip MEP for Scotland, perhaps put it best himself during his sabotaged Periscope broadcast on Tuesday.
“We’re having trouble with the gremlins again.”
The gremlins, as it transpired, were not the technical issues he thought had been plaguing the stream, but amused trolls.
Pranking UKIP's David Coburn during a Periscope broadcast by telling him his mic's not on. Highlight of the week.https://t.co/jHoYFBEU9I
— Jonathan Hopkins (@jonnohopkins) March 29, 2016
As Coburn attempted to launch into a speech about generating business, dozens of users sent messages saying they couldn’t hear him.
This wasn’t true, of course, but their coordinated assault succeeded in stopping the former arts dealer in his tracks.
“People keep saying there’s no sound,” he said, indignantly.
The camera then shook violently as his team set about trying to fix the non-existent technical issues.
Following a bit of wrangling with the gremlins, he began an ill-fated second attempt to talk about tax.
Funnily enough, the sound was failing again.
“Speak up,” one person wrote.
“Just checked my phone volume, on full… Nothing,” said another, condemning a third rant about ageing populations to failure.
Eventually, Coburn, who by this point was staring down the lens in a defeated manner, terminated the broadcast.
An important political victory for trolls everywhere.
