MP Hits Out After Twitter Trolls Send Her Hundreds Of 'Rape' Messages

MP Hits Out After Twitter Trolls Send Her Hundreds Of 'Rape' Messages
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An MP has said "Twitter is dead" after trolls sent her more than 600 messages about raping her in one night.

Jess Phillips has spoken out after the abuse was sent via the social media site.

The wave of abuse against the Birmingham Yardley MP appears to have been launched after she replied to one person who said "I wouldn't even rape you".

She tweeted on Monday morning: "To see the attack of a pack on here check out my mentions 600 odd notifications talking about my rape in one night. I think twitter is dead."

She has previously been subjected to rape threats online after she laughed at Conservative Philip Davies when he called for a discussion in Parliament to coincide with International Men’s Day last October.

Speaking about the recent abuse, the Labour MP told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme: "I could never block them - you would need someone employed full time to block the amount of people who have been in touch with me over the weekend.

"It's not a solution just to block and ignore them in my case. The only solution in stopping me seeing it is if I stop going on Twitter which is a very real possibility."

She added that the "ringleaders" of the abuse should face either civil or criminal action.

Ms Phillips added: "Until Twitter makes this sort of thing stop happening and stops accepting that this sort of dogpiling and mass bullying can happen, their business model is totally flawed. People who don't like this feral side of the internet are just going to walk away."

Twitter said it did not comment on individual cases for privacy and security reasons.

Kira O'Connor, Head of Trust & Safety Outreach, said: "Hateful conduct has no place on the Twitter platform and is a violation of our terms of service. In addition to our policies and user controls, such as block, mute and our new multiple tweet reporting functionality, we work with civil society leaders and academic experts to understand the challenge that exists."