Met Police Investigating Racist Threat Made Against David Lammy
David Lammy has called on Twitter to be “much faster at stamping out racist threats and abuse” after receiving a threat on the social media platform.
The shadow justice secretary, who is Black, posted a screenshot of a message he received in which a Twitter user said he would “hang from a lamppost” if he “wasn’t careful”.
In response to the abusive tweet, Lammy replied: “Vile racists like you will not silence me.
“But social media must not be a platform for threats and abuse.”
On Sunday he reported the threat to the Metropolitan Police, who have confirmed they are investigating an “allegation of malicious communication”.
The following day the Labour MP called on Twitter to act quickly, addressing its CEO, Jack Dorsey, directly.
13+ hours later, the police are investigating and Mikolaos Nichaloliakos’ tweet calling me a ‘monkey boy’ and making threats about ‘hanging’ are still live.@Twitter@jack tell me racist abuse is not welcome on your platform.
You need to get so much faster at removing hate. https://t.co/RAoC4hgbW1— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) August 3, 2020
But the social media platform did not act until Monday when it suspended the user’s account, prompting home secretary Priti Patel to call for “decisive action” against abuse on the site.
I am sorry you have faced this awful racist abuse @DavidLammy.
I have asked the @metpoliceuk to keep me updated on their investigation.
As I have said before, @Twitter must take decisive action against this sort of vile content much faster. https://t.co/pRqB7nWWq5— Priti Patel (@pritipatel) August 3, 2020
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also condemned the abuse, saying: “Social media platforms must be quicker at taking action against hate.
“Racism has no place online or anywhere in our society.”
The politicians’ comments prompted comparisons with their perceived lack of action over online abuse directed at Black Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler.
