FORMER Bradford MP George Galloway has threatened to sue Twitter after being branded “Russian state-affiliated Media” on the platform.

The 67-year-old Scotsman, who represented Bradford West in Parliament, issued a strongly-worded ultimatum to the social media company after a new tag was added to his profile.

The tag is situated just below Mr Galloway’s name and Twitter handle and states: “Russia state-affiliated media”.

It was added to the politician’s profile unbeknownst to him, according to Mr Galloway.

He said in a tweet at 4.35pm yesterday: “Dear @TwitterSupport I am not ‘Russian State Affiliated media’.

“I work for NO #Russian media.

“I have 400,000 followers.

“I’m the leader of a British political party and spent nearly 30 years in the British parliament.

“If you do not remove this designation I will take legal action.”

Mr Galloway served as MP for Bradford West from 2012 to 2015, representing the left-wing Respect Party, and his victory was seen as a huge upset.

He was ousted from his seat in 2015, after being heavily defeated by current MP Naz Shah in the general election.

Mr Galloway now leads the Workers Party of Britain and most recently stood in the Batley and Spen by-election last July, but was beaten to the seat by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater – the sister of the late Jo Cox.

A wave of new tags were seemingly added to profiles across the Twitter platform throughout yesterday, with some accounts now adorned with “China state-affiliated media”.

Merv888, who Mr Galloway retweeted, claims someone who lives in China was given the new designation for posting articles about his life there.

The person behind the account outlines in their bio they were born in England and have lived in Hong Kong since 1986.

They said: “It’s really bizarre these titles Twitter is now giving individuals.

“It’s happened to an American living in Shanghai; he’s now deemed ‘China state-affiliated media’ because he posts articles about his life in China.”

The new tags are clickable and the link goes to Twitter’s Help Centre which explains government and state-affiliated media account labels on the platform.

Twitter states: “Labels on state-affiliated accounts provide additional context about accounts that are controlled by certain official representatives of governments, state-affiliated media entities and individuals associated with those entities.

“The label appears on the profile page of the relevant Twitter account and on the Tweets sent by and shared from these accounts.

“Labels contain information about the country the account is affiliated with and whether it is operated by a government representative or state-affiliated media entity.

“Additionally, these labels include a small icon of a flag to signal the account’s status as a government account and of a podium for state-affiliated media.”

The social media company explains that accounts with these state-affiliated media labels will not be recommended by Twitter and their accounts or their Tweets will not be amplified.

Mr Galloway tweeted at 6.26pm: “It’s Kafkaesque really.

“When I did present on #Russian state media I had NO Twitter designation.

“Now that I don’t can’t and would be committing a crime if I did I have been given the designation.

“Shome mishtake shurely @elonmusk.”

A number of people came out in support of Mr Galloway questioning Twitter’s move, with many directly tweeting the social media company asking them why the tag had been added.