BBC shuts down Lonely Planet travel forum over 'uncomfortable themes' discussed
Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum
The BBC has shut down its popular Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Forum after 'uncomfortable themes' were being discussed.
According to the Independent, the travel forum was suspended on Saturday and a BBC Worldwide spokesman has strongly denied speculation that the 'uncomfortable themes' were paedophilia.
'We've found no evidence of discussions concerning paedophilia on the Thorn Tree forum, but we have discovered instances of inappropriate language and themes,' he said.
'Until we are confident that all rogue posts can be identified and appropriate action taken, we feel we have no option but to temporarily close the site as a precautionary measure.'
He added that the Thorn Tree forum would be closed for at least a while as all posts were gone through with a 'fine tooth comb'.
But according to Australia's The Age, an unnamed source with links to Lonely Planet management said the decision to shut the site down, was 'all about Jimmy Savile'.
The source said a user, who had previously been banned several times for trolling and harassment, emailed BBC executives asking if they were aware the forum was full of porn and swearing.
'They discovered that if you looked for terms like "paedophile" or "child prostitution", you got Thorn Tree hits,' the source said.
'The hits are mostly discussions of current events or pointless stuff that would have been moderated, like "Barney the dinosaur is a big purple paedophile". However, someone found a thread about "what's the age of consent in Mexico?" That really set them off.
'They went into full, freak-out, panic attack mode.'
The source said the executives also found posts related to child prostitution in Thailand.
The Thorn Tree forum currently has a message reading: 'Dear Thorn Tree User, We're sorry but the Thorn Tree forum is temporarily closed as we've discovered instances of inappropriate language and themes. Until we're confident all rogue posts have been identified and appropriate action taken we feel we have no option but to temporarily close the forum as a precautionary measure. We're actively working on this throughout the holiday period - please bear with us.'
Thorn Tree is one of the biggest and most popular travel forums in the world and users expressed their anger at its sudden closure.
Traveller Dustin Dolatowski tweeted: 'You couldn't have picked a worse time for closing the Thorn Tree forum.'
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