Football (Soccer) Pundit Stan Collymore Has Deleted His Twitter Account After urging the Social Network to ‘Do More' to Tackle Online Abuse. |
Posted: January 23, 2014 |
Football pundit Stan Collymore has deleted his Twitter account after urging the social network to ‘do more’ to tackle online abuse. The talkSPORT commentator spoke out after being sent a deluge of death threats and racist slurs from some users on the site. Appearing as a guest on BBC1′s Breakfast programme, the ex-footballer said yesterday: ‘I am seeing gangs of kids from ten to 18 goaded by adults to make racist, homophobic and sexist insults on Twitter. ‘I have been on it for six years now and it’s a fantastic tool to engage in my sport, football, with fans. ‘If you disagree with a point that I make it’s absolutely fine. ‘But I shouldn’t be racially abused for it, I shouldn’t have somebody that tweets me two days ago saying I am going to turn up at your house and murder you.’ talkSPORT chief executive Scott Taunton has vowed to ‘stop promoting’ the station’s Twitter accounts in light of the row. Twitter said its Trust and Safety team, which is being increased in size, works 24 hours a day to respond to reports of abusive tweets. ‘We also have a clear process for working with the police and are in ongoing communication with relevant UK police forces to make sure they are aware of our policies,’ said a Twitter spokesman. ‘Twitter is an open communications platform. Our priority is that users are able to express themselves, within acceptable limits and, of course, within the law.’ Staffordshire Police are investigating the tweets.
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