Scale of abuse of politicians on Twitter revealed

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Scale of abuse of politicians on Twitter revealed





More than 3,000 offensive tweets are sent to UK Members of Parliament every day, a BBC investigation into the extent of online abuse has found.

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Analysis of three million tweets aimed at MPs over a six-week period found more than 130,000, around one in 20, could be classed as toxic.

MP Jess Phillips says the level of abuse has created an unsustainable culture where politicians are afraid to speak their mind on important issues.

Twitter was unavailable for comment.

Our investigation found more than 130,000 tweets mentioning MPs were considered likely to be toxic and 20,000 severely toxic.

All 20 of the MPs to receive the highest proportion of toxic comments were not members of the cabinet or shadow cabinet

Ms Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, said politicians accepted robust criticism was part of their job, but she said a line was crossed when the language used was sexist, racist, or over-sexualised.

"Sadly, women politicians suffer huge amounts of thinly-veiled or completely direct rape and sexual violence threats," she said.

"When it becomes not about a subject but about the way you look and about your children and family that's when it crosses the line."

Ms Phillips said she knew of colleagues who had even voted against their principles on a range of matters including Brexit and military intervention in Syria in order to avoid a backlash on social media.