Bristol weatherman and TV presenter Alex Beresford has reported racist abuse he received on social media to the police, after Twitter said it didn’t breach the platform’s rules.
The Bristol-born presenter shared and called out one Twitter account, which called him a ‘black ****’, and it was reported to Twitter by friends and supporters.
But after Twitter itself said that tweet hadn’t breached its ‘safety rules’, Mr Beresford decided to report the tweet to the Met Police to investigate.
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The Daily Mail reported that friends of the weatherman said he was furious at the level of abuse he receives on social media, and after ‘years of grimly tolerating the slurs’, finally decided to take action.
The Mail reported that a source close to Mr Beresford said: “He gets so much hate on Twitter and, after this particularly despicable comment, he decided to go to the police. They are now looking into it. Alex calls a lot of these people out and tries to shame them but it reaches the point where they have to be properly investigated by officials,” he added.
The former ITV West weatherman and presenter found himself in the centre of social media culture wars after he challenged Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan over his treatment of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry live on air, prompting Morgan to walk off set and leave the show altogether.
That has set him up for even more racist abuse on Twitter, and a tweet from Good Morning Britain about the weather being presented by Laura Tobin last month, prompted more abuse for Alex Beresford, he called it out online.
‘The level of abuse towards him is extraordinary, it is a disgrace,” the source close to Mr Beresford told the Mail. “Like many celebrities he will take so much but it gets to the point when something serious needs to be done and the authorities have to get involved.”
He was dismayed when Twitter said they were not going to do anything about the racist tweet, after one supporter reported the tweet.
In its reply, the social media giant wrote: “After reviewing the available information we want to let you know that @AndrewH1508 hasn’t broken our safety rules. We know this isn’t the answer you’re looking for. If this account breaks our policies in the future, we’ll notify you,” adding the suggestion that anyone offended by such racism simply blocked the troll.
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