David Lammy accuses Twitter of being slow to remove hate speech after receiving 'vile' racist threat

Labour MP tells abuser: 'You will not silence me'

David Lammy has accused Twitter of being too slow at “removing hate” from its platform after he received a racist threat.

The Labour MP posted a screen grab of a message in which a fellow social media user said he would “hang from a lamppost” if he “wasn’t careful”.

“Vile racists like you will not silence me,” Mr Lammy commented.

“But social media must not be a platform for threats and abuse.”

Sharing the message on Sunday evening, the Shadow Justice Secretary called on Scotland Yard to take action.

The following morning, he said police were now investigating — but the offending tweets “calling me a ‘monkey boy’ and making threats about ‘hanging’” were still visible on Twitter.

“Tell me racist abuse is not welcome on your platform,” Mr Lammy wrote, tagging Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey.

“You need to get so much faster at removing hate.”

The Standard has contacted Met Police and Twitter for comment.

His complaint came just a week after social media users staged a boycott of Twitter and Instagram, over their delay in removing anti-Semitic messages posted by UK rapper Wiley.

Announcing that the grime artist’s account had been permanently suspended, a Twitter spokesperson said: “Let us be clear: hateful conduct has absolutely no place on our service and we strongly condemn anti-Semitism.

“We are sorry we did not move faster and are continuing to assess the situation internally.

They continued: “We will continue to work closely with government, NGOs, civil society partners and our industry peers to tackle anti-Semitism on Twitter.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism branded the action “too little, too late”.

Condemning the platform in a statement, the group said: “From their pitiful responses to the hate spewed daily on their platform, it is evident that social media companies will stop at nothing to make a profit.

“It is time for these deeply damaging and irresponsible companies to be held accountable for the hatred they help spread.”