MPs Dehenna Davison and Kate Osborne speak out over 'toxic' tweets

MPs have spoken about how they have received sexually explicit and homophobic tweets, after BBC research revealed the scale of the problem.

Dehenna Davison, Tory MP for Bishop Auckland, endured the 12th worst proportion of toxic tweets of all MPs, the BBC's Shared Data Unit found.

Abuse hurled at Labour's Jarrow MP Kate Osborne led to a restraining order.

Analysis of three million tweets aimed at MPs over six weeks found more than 130,000 could be classed as "toxic".

The research was carried out between March and mid-April, and concluded 20,000 of the tweets sent in that period would be deemed "severely toxic".

A toxic comment was defined as one which is "rude, disrespectful or unreasonable" and "likely to make someone leave a conversation".

Twitter was unavailable for comment.

Ms Davison, elected Bishop Auckland's first Conservative MP in 2019, said most comments were "low level" but some were "a lot more sinister", and the police have been involved.

"I do think there is a sense that women do get it worse," she said.

"There has been a lot of quite sexually explicit stuff.

"I have had people talking about how my dead dad must be looking down on me ashamed."

She received offensive tweets when she wrote a critical open letter to actor Will Smith following his assault of Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony.

Ms Davison is a campaigner for awareness of the dangers of one-punch assaults, following the death of her father in 2007 when she was just 13.

She said she "naively assumed" the response would have been positive, because of previous feedback.

"It was really surprising and really difficult, so I ended up just turning Twitter off for a few days and letting it die down."

Ms Davison received the largest amount of abuse on social media among all MPs representing the North East and Cumbria.

She remains active on social media and is not "afraid to share" her opinion, which she believes acts as a target.

"I am a young, northern, working class, female Tory, everything a Conservative isn't supposed to be. I don't know if I just tick all the wrong boxes for attracting that sort of abuse."

The Levelling Up Minister said while she supported "free speech" she called on social media companies to be more "willing" to share information on those who abuse and harass.

Kate Osborne, elected Labour's MP for Jarrow in 2019, has also suffered abuse on Twitter, as well as abusive graffiti and stickers put up in her constituency, which she said were "designed to intimidate".

She said part of the problem was "faceless" social media accounts.

"I am very fortunate that I am in a position where I can speak out about these things and be heard - nobody is going to silence me," she said.

"I think undoubtedly if I was a white, straight man I wouldn't get the volume that I get.

"We know that women in elected positions, not just MPs but councillors and women generally get more abuse online than men do."

In August, a constituent was found guilty of harassing her and was handed a restraining order, in a case which the judge noted the "homophobic content", the MP said.

Ms Osborne said it was her "responsibility" to call abuse out and spoke about the impact it has had on her family.

"It obviously upsets them - I think sometimes, when there's a threat there and it may be a threat of violence - that's really uncomfortable to know whether or not that's going to result in any physical action against me.

"We have seen two MPs murdered - most of the time I can let it go over my head but we have to take these things seriously.

"I don't expect people to agree with me all the time - that's life, that's democracy - but it's not necessary and it's not acceptable for people to abuse somebody else."

Twitter has previously said it is committed to combatting abuse as outlined in its Hateful Conduct Policy.

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