Ex-footballer says social networking site is not doing enough to combat abuse after receiving series of offensive messages

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Former footballer Stan Collymore has accused Twitter of not doing enough to combat illegal abuse on the network, during a week when he and the former gymnast Beth Tweddle have both been subjected to derogatory comments.

Collymore has been the victim of a series of abusive tweets since saying the Liverpool forward Luis Suárez had dived when winning a penalty against Aston Villa in the Premier League. Tweddle was targeted on Tuesday during a question-and-answer session hosted by Sky Sports.

Collymore, 43, wrote: "In the last 24 hours I've been threatened with murder several times, demeaned on my race, and many of these accounts are still active. Why? I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic/sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK."

The police confirmed on Tuesday night that they were investigating a series of messages directed at the former England international.

On Tuesday night, Sky Sports condemned the abuse of Tweddle during their Q&A session, describing some messages as "unacceptable and offensive".

On Wednesday Tweddle wrote: "Thanks for all your messages. Yesterday was unfortunate but I've been heartened to see the reaction from responsible Twitter users.

A Twitter spokeswoman said the company was unable to comment on individual users. However, she pointed out that targeted abuse was against its rules and the site had recently made it easier for users to report it.