Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland, has blasted the lax attitude social media site Twitter has displayed in failing to protect users from vile online abuse.

Describing the events, O’Gorman posted: “I’ve a very thick skin. I have to,” tagging Twitter support and continuing “if this bile doesn’t violate your rules against abusive behaviour, then your rules are seriously flawed. You can’t claim to be anti-hate and permit this. Shame on you.” Attached to the post were screenshots of messages he had received from a homophobic troll.

I’ve a very thick skin, I have to. But @TwitterSupport if this bile doesn’t violate your rules against abusive behaviour, then your rules are seriously flawed. You can’t claim to be anti-hate and permit this. Shame on you. pic.twitter.com/eTZXU2rYXJ

— Colm O'Gorman 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇮🇪 (@Colmogorman) September 14, 2018

Referring to the children of O’Gorman and his husband, the images of the bile-filled tweets read: “Imagine two perverted rent boys sharing a house with two kids, you are the real abuser Colm supporting baby killing, adopting kids in a depraved manner, accusing the church of things that did not happen and all the time you have pocketed [thousands] of pounds”.

This was most likely in reference to O’Gorman sharing a story of his rape by a priest and his subsequent attempts to get the Vatican to admit they covered up clerical abuse.

I was 14. Within 6 months of the visit I was raped for 1st time by a Priest who had been ordained despite the Church knowing he was a paedophile. 15 years later I sued Pope JPII to try get the Vatican to tell the truth about what they knew about the priest https://t.co/uBIFgFpVQr

— Colm O'Gorman 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇮🇪 (@Colmogorman) July 29, 2018

The tweets continued by naming O’Gorman’s children, continuing accusations of paedophilia and wishing someone would kill him before
concluding with “If you were in Russia, you’d be dead by now and rightly so.”

When O’Gorman reported the abuse to Twitter, he received a surprising reply stating “Thank you for your recent report. We have reviewed your report carefully and found that there was no violation of the Twitter Rules against abusive behaviour.”

The company refused to act even though their rules specifically read “In order to facilitate healthy dialogue on the platform, and empower individuals to express diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that harasses or intimidates, or is otherwise intended to shame or degrade others.”

Despite this, they failed to find anything wrong with O’Gorman being called a child abuser or publicly wishing for his death.

I highlight this not because I give a flying fig about “Joey” or what he or she thinks, but because of what it reveals about @twitter ‘s ongoing appalling attitude to such obvious and targeted abuse.

— Colm O'Gorman 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇮🇪 (@Colmogorman) September 14, 2018

O’Gorman shared their decision with his followers, arguing: “Point is this stuff causes real harm…He uses my kids names. I’m a public figure, they aren’t…you’ve got some messed up policies to sort out.”

In a follow up post, he continued: “I highlight this not because I give a flying fig about [the troll] or what he or she thinks, but because of what it reveals about Twitter’s ongoing appalling attitude to such obvious and targeted abuse.”