Gary Lineker has questioned social media users’ ability to send vile messages on platforms like Twitter (Picture: NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Gary Lineker has asked Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk if a threatening tweet sent to his son George is acceptable.
The football pundit, who yesterday confirmed he’d be returning to the BBC after stepping off air because of tweets he published about the UK government’s immigration policy, publicly sent Elon a message his 31-year-old son had received in which a social media user said he should be ‘burned at the stake’.
The message sent to George read: ‘Your a mug how dare you stick up for what your s**those of a dad said you need to be burned at the stake.’ [sic]
Posting the message on his own Twitter page, George wrote: ‘Social media’s mad isn’t it. Over the last few days, on insta – never had so many nice messages. On Twitter – never had so much abuse. It’s not even anything to do with me.’
Retweeting his son’s message and copying in Elon, Gary added: ‘Is this acceptable @Twitter @elonmusk ? And I don’t mean the grammar.’
Gary’s son George has been sent threatening messages online in the wake of his dad’s BBC drama (Picture: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)
Elon Musk is Twitter’s CEO (Picture: REUTERS)
Gary retweeted George and also copied in Elon (Picture: Twitter)
George shared the threatening message (Picture: Twitter)
George has publicly supported his famous dad, 62, who sparked intense debates over the BBC’s impartiality rules when he compared the Home Office’s migrant boat policy to Nazi Germany on Twitter last week, sparking both widespread praise and criticism.
While Gary said that he stood by his social media post, it was revealed that he’d been asked to step back from presenting Match of the Day on Saturday, March 11.
Presenters including Alan Shearer and Ian Wright stood by Gary in solidarity, refusing to host the programme, which resulted in it being devoid of presenters and commentary and lasting only 20 minutes long.
Gary’s return to presenting duties on Match of the Day this weekend was confirmed on Monday by the BBC.
In a statement released at 10am, Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, said: ‘Gary is a valued part of the BBC and I know how much the BBC means to Gary, and I look forward to him presenting our coverage this coming weekend.’
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Gary added: ‘I am glad that we have found a way forward. I support this review and look forward to getting back on air.’
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Musk and Twitter for comment.
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