BREAKING NEWS » Tom Daley Twitter abuse

[:Pringles,]

A teenager has been arrested by police investigating abuse of Team GB diver Tom Daley on Twitter.

After coming fourth in the men's synchronised 10m platform diving event on Monday, the 18-year-old received a message telling him he had let down his father.

Daley's father Rob died in 2011 from brain cancer.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested at a guest house in the Weymouth area on suspicion of malicious communications.

Daley responded to the tweet by posting: "After giving it my all...you get idiot's sending me this..."

The user, Rileyy69, posted a later tweet apologising for the comment before the Twitter account was suspended.

There was support for Daley on the site from fans and other competitors.

Daley's partner Pete Waterfield tweeted: "For all the haters out there, come do what we do then have ur say"

Open water swimmer Keri-Anne Payne also posted: "Ignore the idiots! Not worth it."

After the synchronised diving disappointment, Waterfield said he apologised to his diving partner after an error cost them a chance of an Olympic medal.

"After that dive [a reverse three-and-a-half somersault], I said sorry, but Tom told me not to worry," he said.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61920000/jpg/_61920161_61920160.jpg
Daley and Waterfield came fourth in the event

Source: BBC News

[Fifty-Six]

Saw this trending worldwide on my Twitter. Is this troll guy an adult film star? LOL. I looked at his profile and it seems fairly sexual and there's also a link to an adult site..

[LoveToStack]

Rest in peace freedom of speech.

[lawrawrrr]

Target a celebrity - get arrested!

Target a normal civilian - nothing happens!


Typical really isn't it. If telling someone they let their dad down is an arrestable offence why are 'Beliebers' and 'Directioners' (not all, just some) allowed to tell people to go and die just for not supporting their idols? As much as I don't think it's right, they shouldn't be more lenient towards celebs when other people get by with no consequences whatsoever. It's just not good enough.

[Zak]

Rest in peace freedom of speech.

Exactly what I've been thinking.

If they can't handle the tweets, don't have Twitter, simple.

[Chris]

There was more tweets than that. Some included threats that he would come and personally drown him.

[xxMATTGxx]

I'm pretty sure it was the amount of people who got involved with re-tweets, making people aware that then the Police got involved. Not that Tom went to the Police straight away over the matter. Plus threatening to drown someone isn't exactly nice or normal.

[Fifty-Six]

The tweets were much more than his "you let your dad down" message to Daley. He threatened to kill/beat up multiple people

Examples:
"i dont give a *REMOVED* bruv i'm gonna drown him and i'm gonna shoot you he failed why you supporting him you *REMOVED*"
"shut your dirty little mouth you *REMOVED* i'm going to kill you when your back trust me"

Edited by Chris (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not avoid the filter!

[SackRace]

Exactly what I've been thinking.

If they can't handle the tweets, don't have Twitter, simple.

He threatened to drown him, are you sure you read everything?

[dbgtz]

Not really breaking news, it's just a person who wants their 15 minutes of fame for whatever reason.

[sex]

This user has been abusing people on twitter for months, just normal people. Its about time something happened to him. But lol "guest house" whats that? some sort of poor people shelter?

[buttons]

haaaaaaaaaa
he looks so much like damien (earthquake)
and acts like it too

[Richie]

That's a terrible thing to say but what ever happened to what happens on the internet stays on the internet, when did the police start getting involved? Hurtful comments but not worth the waste of police time. I'm sure they have enough on their plate with the olympics, why are they chasing internet trolls? Can you not report users to twitter? because all this time wasting over some stupid kids thinking their screen can protect them, is just crazy.

[Zak]

He threatened to drown him, are you sure you read everything?

Nah I don't have Twitter. Though I don't care what he said, it's all talk, nothing would happen to Tom.

I feel people should be able to say what they want online without punishment.. it's the only piece of freedom we have left

[Kushja]

This user has been abusing people on twitter for months, just normal people. Its about time something happened to him. But lol "guest house" whats that? some sort of poor people shelter?

Down here in Dorset, that would be called a B&B..

Good ole' Dorset Police, doing their jobs worth.

[Rixion]

It wasn't the tweets that disturbed me, it was the vulgar video that was posted to youtube showed him c and f bombing frequently and aiming ferocious abuse at Daly, just disturbing really.

[FlyingJesus]

what ever happened to what happens on the internet stays on the internet, when did the police start getting involved?

Nothing happened to it because it was never a thing, sending death threats online (or telling them to kill themselves) is just as illegal as it is off-screen. Also it wasn't just about Tom Daley's dad, that's just how it started - it quickly escalated to him telling several people that he was going to hunt them down and murder them, which is a pretty serious offence

[Kyle]

Nah I don't have Twitter. Though I don't care what he said, it's all talk, nothing would happen to Tom.

I feel people should be able to say what they want online without punishment.. it's the only piece of freedom we have left
I agree that we should be able to say what we like, but within reason. Internet trolls shouldn't be free from punishment just because they're behind a screen. The only reason Riley says these things about people is because he thinks he's invincible and this shows that he isn't.

Some people seem to think that freedom of speech means that you can say what you like about whomever you please and not be punished. This is true to some extent but obviously a line has to be drawn where what you say is that offensive or includes (albeit empty) threats of violence. The right decision. Glad this twit was made an example of, he's got away with it for long enough now. Don't think he'll be too harshly punished though.

[LoveToStack]

Some people seem to think that freedom of speech means that you can say what you like about whomever you please and not be punished.

Bear in mind that nowhere in the OP does it mention that the man arrested was making death threats. A lot of people ITT made their comments while under the impression that the guy had been arrested only because of the tweet which is mentioned in the original post. This is no fault of the OP's though since it seems that some articles only mention that one tweet while others go on to talk about the 'drown' one as well.

[Zak]

I agree that we should be able to say what we like, but within reason. Internet trolls shouldn't be free from punishment just because they're behind a screen. The only reason Riley says these things about people is because he thinks he's invincible and this shows that he isn't.

Some people seem to think that freedom of speech means that you can say what you like about whomever you please and not be punished. This is true to some extent but obviously a line has to be drawn where what you say is that offensive or includes (albeit empty) threats of violence. The right decision. Glad this twit was made an example of, he's got away with it for long enough now. Don't think he'll be too harshly punished though.

fair point kyle x

[Shar]

Arresting a guy over a twitter comment..glad to see the police doing their job.

edit; reading further into it, that guy did deserve it. Wish other worse cases were dealt like this too though ;/

[Absently]

a girl not so long ago killed herself, partly because of the **** that was said to her. those criminals are still walking free.

[xxMATTGxx]

Unfortunately the media missed out the important parts which most likely led to the arrest of the person. Which did include death threats to more than one person.

[GoldenMerc]

Just a claim for fame really.

[Oleh]

Target a celebrity - get arrested!

Target a normal civilian - nothing happens!


Typical really isn't it. If telling someone they let their dad down is an arrestable offence why are 'Beliebers' and 'Directioners' (not all, just some) allowed to tell people to go and die just for not supporting their idols? As much as I don't think it's right, they shouldn't be more lenient towards celebs when other people get by with no consequences whatsoever. It's just not good enough.

A celebrity holds an elevated position in society whereby people admire them and idolise them. People sending death threats is a bit more serious when thousands of people including the police take them seriously and act without a report, where as if say you or I got threatened on Twitter, nobody would notice and it'd go past like a empty plastic bag.

Plus they can't go around arresting every pre-pubescent teenager for making empty threats, where as a single adult making threats is a big more serious.

[ISniffCheese]

Ignore the family guy edited bit.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFhtOiR0eXc

Thread merged by Chris (Forum Super Moderator): As a thread is already discussing this!

[Kyle]

"my account got hacked"

lol...... wat.....

---------- Post added 31-07-2012 at 06:29 PM ----------

just looked and this was an 'apology' for previous action, posted over three weeks ago. lmao

[ISniffCheese]

"my account got hacked"

lol...... wat.....

---------- Post added 31-07-2012 at 06:29 PM ----------

just looked and this was an 'apology' for previous action, posted over three weeks ago. lmao

I just saw that hahaha my badddd

[Mark]

He posted this ages before he got arrested did he not?

[GommeInc]

Unebelievably pointless and Daley surrendered any sense of professionalism over this. It's such a non-story and I can't believe they arrested someone. Good bye freedom of speech :/

[sex]

Unebelievably pointless and Daley surrendered any sense of professionalism over this. It's such a non-story and I can't believe they arrested someone. Good bye freedom of speech :/

There is freedom of speech then there is fearing for your life because someone is made a threat to come drown you and beat you up lol

[Stephen]

Hardly gonna take a little kid who gives abuse to everyone on twitter seriously

tom daley is just a little cry baby ******

[xxMATTGxx]

Unebelievably pointless and Daley surrendered any sense of professionalism over this. It's such a non-story and I can't believe they arrested someone. Good bye freedom of speech :/

It isn't goodbye freedom of speech, you shouldn't be threatening to kill people. The media just missed that part out unfortunately.


Hardly gonna take a little kid who gives abuse to everyone on twitter seriously

tom daley is just a little cry baby ******

You do realise it probably wasn't even him who got the Police involved? The amount of tweets that was sent and most likely sent to the Police force who did arrest the person was the what triggered it.

[Shockwave.2CC]

I don't know why people are haters, because after all it's only the Olympics, it's not going to kill you if Team GB come last in everything. so people just need to chill

[dirrty]

whomever are talking about freedom of speech, the concept doesn't even truly exist anyway.

nevertheless, a threat is a threat. the fact that it's on twitter doesn't change anything, as social media is a flourishing new platform which is embedded into society; so it makes perfect sense to police its negative occurrences. afterall, threats over the phone would be treated the same way, and that mode of communication isn't that different from social media now, is it?

[Gibs960]

If you want freedom of speech, don't say racist comments are wrong.

I've not actually read the tweet yet, if it's some stupid little remark that's been made into a big thing I'm gonna be quite annoyed.


You let your dad down i hope you know that.

According to the Telegraph that's all it was. If the guy would have kept his mouth shut after the apology he wouldn't have had all this hate.

[dirrty]

If you want freedom of speech, don't say racist comments are wrong.

I've not actually read the tweet yet, if it's some stupid little remark that's been made into a big thing I'm gonna be quite annoyed.



According to the Telegraph that's all it was. If the guy would have kept his mouth shut after the apology he wouldn't have had all this hate.
he sent a barrage of tweets, not just one.

[GommeInc]

It isn't goodbye freedom of speech, you shouldn't be threatening to kill people. The media just missed that part out unfortunately.
Just read about that. The BBC, C4 and The Guardian completely missed all the important information out :/ They've been making it look as though Riley(?) only said "your father would be disappointed" which, although a little insensitive, wasn't against any laws and not offensive. But he seems to have a record of poor internet etiquette, and the actions taken out on him were deserved (though a bit unnecessary), even though Twitter should of intervened and not the police.

I understand he has been given a warning and sent home?


There is freedom of speech then there is fearing for your life because someone is made a threat to come drown you and beat you up lol
True, I only read the BBC, C4 and Guardian reports on the matter, which missed out a lot of important information.

That said, wouldn't you just ignore people who say these sorts of things? They clearly lack the metaphorical balls to confront you in person and hide behind a Twitter account :P

[xxMATTGxx]

Just read about that. The BBC, C4 and The Guardian completely missed all the important information out :/ They've been making it look as though Riley(?) only said "your father would be disappointed" which, although a little insensitive, wasn't against any laws and not offensive. But he seems to have a record of poor internet etiquette, and the actions taken out on him were deserved (though a bit unnecessary), even though Twitter should of intervened and not the police.

I understand he has been given a warning and sent home?

Yeah hes been given a warning and has been bailed. I believe other tweets are being investigated as well, hopefully he won't carry on and act like if hes invincible again.

[Lee]

I presume this will be a real wake up call for him and other trolls, action could just be taken against you. Well done for taking action I say.

[MKR&*42]

Hmm. I somehow found the dude's acc., and I'm glad the police got involved tbf. It's just an endless list of death threats, crude lines + just idiotic messages. All the messages aimed at/about Tom:




you should be ashamed of yourself you let out country down just **** off

you let your dad down i hope you know that

sit your ass back down tommy and don't get on a diving board again my little brother could do better absolute waste of space

hope your crying now you should be why can't you even produce for your country your just a diver anyway a over hyped *****

you really didn't try your best tommy you said you'd do your country proud and you let us all down rather support a tramp tbh

he let the whole country down he's a little boy who's competing against men

i dont give a **** bruv i'm gonna drown him and i'm gonna shoot you he failed why you suporting him you ****.



I'd post 3 more (that are aimed at diff. people), but it's too crude to be on the forum/in a spoiler I believe. At least someone did something about it.

[Fustraton]

I usually splash into the jokes about the news. But this is just sad.



I bet his mommy is shouting at him now.

[Chris]

Next time he'll think twice before doing something like that. Good job I say!

[lawrawrrr]

A celebrity holds an elevated position in society whereby people admire them and idolise them. People sending death threats is a bit more serious when thousands of people including the police take them seriously and act without a report, where as if say you or I got threatened on Twitter, nobody would notice and it'd go past like a empty plastic bag.

Plus they can't go around arresting every pre-pubescent teenager for making empty threats, where as a single adult making threats is a big more serious.

Riley was a child at the end of the day, and didn't even threaten tom, yknow? Was just a nasty comment. I realise that the police take things more seriously when it's brought to attention but when my friend was receving death threats from her ex's friends, she called the police and they told her to get over it - it's only twitter. They weren't even joking threats, she was so scared ended up deleting her account and pretty much becoming an internet recluse because of it. Just because everyone idolises a celebrity why should the law treat them differently? They're only a person...

[xxMATTGxx]

Should have probably took that further to see if the Police failed to do their job to be honest.


Riley was a child at the end of the day, and didn't even threaten tom, yknow? Was just a nasty comment. I realise that the police take things more seriously when it's brought to attention but when my friend was receving death threats from her ex's friends, she called the police and they told her to get over it - it's only twitter. They weren't even joking threats, she was so scared ended up deleting her account and pretty much becoming an internet recluse because of it. Just because everyone idolises a celebrity why should the law treat them differently? They're only a person...

[SackRace]

Riley was a child at the end of the day, and didn't even threaten tom, yknow? Was just a nasty comment. I realise that the police take things more seriously when it's brought to attention but when my friend was receving death threats from her ex's friends, she called the police and they told her to get over it - it's only twitter. They weren't even joking threats, she was so scared ended up deleting her account and pretty much becoming an internet recluse because of it. Just because everyone idolises a celebrity why should the law treat them differently? They're only a person...

Did you also see what he wrote about Tom Daley's dad?

[lawrawrrr]

Should have probably took that further to see if the Police failed to do their job to be honest.

We figured they didn't cover Internet-based bullying after they so rudely turned us down.


Did you also see what he wrote about Tom Daley's dad?

he didnt......reallly... say anything about his dad, only that tom let him down. Not threatening, just a really horrible thing to say? Unless i'm missing the point.

[xxMATTGxx]

We figured they didn't cover Internet-based bullying after they so rudely turned us down.



he didnt......reallly... say anything about his dad, only that tom let him down. Not threatening, just a really horrible thing to say? Unless i'm missing the point.

There was threats to Tom and said he was going to drown him and other threats to other users. In terms of bullying and threats on the internet, I'm pretty sure the Police do cover some points of it. It just seems your friend had some bad luck or something. Can't really say much about it :P

[lawrawrrr]

There was threats to Tom and said he was going to drown him and other threats to other users. In terms of bullying and threats on the internet, I'm pretty sure the Police do cover some points of it. It just seems your friend had some bad luck or something. Can't really say much about it :P

Oh i see, I only saw the original few. I know someone else who has been investigated because she was internet-bullied a few months ago but she lives in the US, I think they're stricter there. Bit annoying but that's life. At the end of the day, you don't NEED social networks so she just deleted them.

[Fustraton]

I actually had a look at his page and he looks like such a @#~$. Seriously he posts abusive comments to everyone.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I do love reading comments on here from people who don't believe in freedom of speech and who believe their is a 'right' to not be offended. All of them have absolutely no common sense nor concept of the real world, thinking the world can be made nice with cuddles and love by throwing nasty people in prison with whom they disagree with.

All i'll say is, there was a well known regime which also arrested people for speech/expression which eventually led to books being burnt and much worse. The fact that people can now be arrested for certain sounds coming from their mouth/words being written is far more nasty than anything that was written to Tom Daley.

[FlyingJesus]

Dan if you actually read into this issue past the misleading first post you'd see that the legal issue was with death threats and violent abuse, not just someone being a meany poo

[mrwoooooooo]

I do love reading comments on here from people who don't believe in freedom of speech and who believe their is a 'right' to not be offended. All of them have absolutely no common sense nor concept of the real world, thinking the world can be made nice with cuddles and love by throwing nasty people in prison with whom they disagree with.

All i'll say is, there was a well known regime which also arrested people for speech/expression which eventually led to books being burnt and much worse. The fact that people can now be arrested for certain sounds coming from their mouth/words being written is far more nasty than anything that was written to Tom Daley.

*there

Edited by Sky (Forum Moderator): Please don't post pointlessly!

[dirrty]

Dan if you actually read into this issue past the misleading first post you'd see that the legal issue was with death threats and violent abuse, not just someone being a meany poo
exactly. i don't think people should be prosecuted for just generally being a ****, but when it comes to death threats, it should be handled the way the police would handle threats over the phone. twitter is just another communicative medium that should be monitored exactly how traditional ones are. the problem though, is that it seems like it's only forwarded to the police when it involves someone high profile (not really surprised). but with the increasing amount of police forces having twitter accounts, i can see the rise in cases being dealt with in regards to the public. i'm all for morons like the one in question being made an example of to deter other idiots in doing the same thing (like the riots last year and the harsh penalties).

[-:Undertaker:-]

Dan if you actually read into this issue past the misleading first post you'd see that the legal issue was with death threats and violent abuse, not just someone being a meany poo

I'm referring to threats as well, I think there is a clear line between genuine reasons to believe a threat (which should be investigated if evidence comes up) as compared with general comments made on Twitter.


exactly. i don't think people should be prosecuted for just generally being a ****, but when it comes to death threats, it should be handled the way the police would handle threats over the phone. twitter is just another communicative medium that should be monitored exactly how traditional ones are. the problem though, is that it seems like it's only forwarded to the police when it involves someone high profile (not really surprised). but with the increasing amount of police forces having twitter accounts, i can see the rise in cases being dealt with in regards to the public. i'm all for morons like the one in question being made an example of to deter other idiots in doing the same thing (like the riots last year and the harsh penalties).

I'm one of the posters on this forum who argues most strongly for a tough criminal justice system, but freedom of speech is absolute.

[dirrty]

I'm referring to threats as well, I think there is a clear line between genuine reasons to believe a threat (which should be investigated if evidence comes up) as compared with general comments made on Twitter.



I'm one of the posters on this forum who argues most strongly for a tough criminal justice system, but freedom of speech is absolute.
freedom of speech doesn't truly exist tho

[-:Undertaker:-]

freedom of speech doesn't truly exist tho

It can, it just depends whether you believe in it or not.

[dirrty]

It can, it just depends whether you believe in it or not.
i wouldn't say "whether you believe in it or not", but rather whether society (and it's agencies) allow you to illustrate that supposed right.

[FlyingJesus]

Total and utter freedom of speech can infringe on other peoples' freedoms, and that's where it needs policing. Saying "I don't like your face" isn't nice and might make someone unhappy but it isn't causing any damage other than that, whereas telling someone you're going to hunt them down and kill them is inciting real fear and quite understandably should not be allowed as you are causing someone else actual difficulty. If you don't make that distinction then all you're left with is a primitive and unstable tyranny of the strongest where the most physically built-up people can do as they please because no-one can do anything about them

[LiquidLuck.]

I think that it only got more serious because so many people got involved. If it was a normal person, but just as many people got involved, it'd also be a big deal.

[GommeInc]

Total and utter freedom of speech can infringe on other peoples' freedoms, and that's where it needs policing. Saying "I don't like your face" isn't nice and might make someone unhappy but it isn't causing any damage other than that, whereas telling someone you're going to hunt them down and kill them is inciting real fear and quite understandably should not be allowed as you are causing someone else actual difficulty. If you don't make that distinction then all you're left with is a primitive and unstable tyranny of the strongest where the most physically built-up people can do as they please because no-one can do anything about them
But what if the person in question doesn't feel fear or the comments made are baseless in terms of the likelihood of them actually hunting them down? I don't remember seeing Tom Daley saying he was fearing for his life, which is a huge comparison to the silent individuals who are actually victims of cyber bullying who actually feel fear, yet nothing comes of it when you report the cyber bully. It sort of builds on the idea someone posted that when a person in the media spotlight is inadvertedly attacked the world suddenly becomes interested, even though the celebrity is just feeding the troll and not actually caring all that much, yet the reality of cyber bullying is far more painful for those who do not have thousands of followers.

It's probably why policing Twitter is such a controversial topic because it seems a huge waste of resources focused on celebrities who should know better than to feed the trolls, when the focus should be on people who actually commit suicide or give a cry for help but are never actually heard. Obviously if a celeb is harassed, then action should be taken, but Daley just seemed to of fed the troll and got his horde of followers to leap on them - he didn't seem all that emotionally bothered.

[FlyingJesus]

It's not about Tom Daley!

[GommeInc]

It's not about Tom Daley!
And the others of course :P It seems the law takes a proactive response to public figures but never people in general.

[dirrty]

And the others of course :P It seems the law takes a proactive response to public figures but never people in general.
that's nothing new though. obviously shouldn't be that way, but public figures have always been treated differently compared to the general public. we see all the time, how celebrities commit certain crimes, but get away with a fine, community service or a light sentencing; whereas if a 'normal' person committed the same crime, they'd be thrown in prison faster than they could sneeze.