UK radio broadcaster talkSPORT today boycotted social media network Twitter because of a lack of preventative action taken by the website against abusive and racist tweets directed at their presenter Stan Collymore.
Ex-footballer and now radio host Collymore has been the subject of numerous death threats and racist messages and retweeted many of the explicit tweets that he receives to his 500,000+ followers.
As of this afternoon, talkSPORT said that they would not promote any of their Twitter accounts or use tweets on the radio or in Sport magazine.
"We are dismayed at the lack of response and perceived inaction by Twitter. Racist or abusive messages of this nature are illegal and unacceptable," chief executive Scott Taunton said in a statement.
"We have more than three million Twitter followers across our accounts but we will not promote these until we are satisfied that Twitter is doing its utmost to prevent abuse of this nature. We have a duty of care to all our staff and presenters and until I am satisfied that Twitter is treating this seriously we will no longer promote Twitter accounts or use tweets on-air.
"It seems inconceivable that a hi-tech company with a market capitalisation of $30bn appears incapable of preventing racist and abusive tweets being broadcast across its platform."
The broadcaster wants Twitter to implement a filtering process to ensure that hate language is not used in tweets.
Pascal Lemesre
