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International comedy superstar Ricky Gervais has garnered a reputation for speaking his mind on Twitter and advocating for freedom of speech on the platform.
However, the comedian’s stance on the subject was brought into question on Friday afternoon as India Willoughby shared a screenshot revealing that she had been blocked by Ricky, simply captioning the snap: “Oh no.”
One fan shared a screenshot of the tweet on their own page and, while they declared this move was simply another reason to be “a huge fan of Ricky Gervais”, another staunchly disagreed.
They argued in the comments: “Why? I thought Ricky Gervais was for freedom of speech?
“Looks like freedom of speech stops where someone is unhappy to hear something they don’t like…”
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The 61-year-old actor slammed the claim just minutes later, explaining: “Blocking someone does not infringe on their free speech.
“They can carry on saying whatever mental things they like.
“My freedom to not hear it is also intact. It’s a good system. Hope that explains things,” he concluded with a thumbs-up emoji.
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Fans were quick to praise the star for his “well-worded” response, with one adding: “Exactly. You have the right to say just about anything, but no one in the whole world is obligated to listen to you.”
Others offered Ricky some advice, noting that they “prefer to just mute them let them talk to themselves”. (sic)
Fans also began sharing their own screenshots in the comments, revealing that India had blocked them too with some bragging that they “got blocked well before you did”.
India added to the discourse in a separate Twitter thread, where a different user sarcastically wrote on her original tweet: “It’s a good job India Willoughby doesn’t block loads of people, somebody might say that’s hypocritical.”
The 57-year-old replied: “I don’t advocate ‘free speech’ or say nobody should be offended. I’m anti ‘free speech.’ Why are you anonymous?”
On her original post, fans asked India if she had any context to why she may have been blocked, and having been an outspoken critic of the comedian for years, the trans woman had a few ideas.
She wrote: “Either because I said I’ve already seen his next Netflix special – the one he hasn’t yet written. Or saying he’s openly transphobic. Which every trans person on planet Earth agrees on bar Debbie Hayton and Blaire White.”
The broadcaster was also inundated with joking comments sending her “thoughts and prayers during this difficult time”.
