Former England footballer Stan Collymore says Twitter is failing to do enough to clamp down on abuse, blasting the "sheer lunacy" of internet trolls operating with seeming impunity.
Collymore, now a football pundit, said on Wednesday he had received death threats and racial abuse for criticising Liverpool striker Luis Suarez after Saturday's Premier League match against Aston Villa.
Retweeting such messages to his half a million followers, Collymore 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?"
He added: "I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic/sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK."
The former British transfer fee record holder toured broadcasters on Wednesday, triggering debate about the scale of the problem.
The ex-Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa striker claimed it was too easy for people who have had accounts closed or suspended to simply open another one.
"All it's doing is providing a vacuum for anti-Semitic abuse, racist abuse, homophobic abuse, sexist abuse, anti-disability abuse and it's quite frankly illegal," he told BBC television.
The 43-year-old also called for better age verification on the micro-blogging website.
Collymore's local police force said they were investigating the tweets.
Twitter said in a statement: "We do not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons."
It said targeted abuse was against its rules and it had made it easier for users to report examples.
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