Twitter suspended one paedophilia-promoting account only after The Sunday Times asked about it

Twitter is being flooded with accounts promoting paedophilia — and although the company says it is “aggressively taking action”, many of the users remain on the site.

A Sunday Times investigation has found a string of accounts on Twitter that seek to normalise, promote and defend adults having sexual relationships with children. Some post with the hashtags #maps and #nomaps.

“Maps” stands for for “minor attracted person”, while “Nomaps” stands for “non-offending minor attracted person” and is used by those who claim they do not act on their attraction to children.

It is believed that the deluge of anonymous pro-paedophilia accounts on Twitter was orchestrated by users of the controversial message board 4chan.

Twitter said: “This type of deliberate attempt to undermine and disrupt the