Now football host tackles Musk after attacks on his son by Twitter trolls

TWITTER may be the platform of choice for Gary Lineker – but that hasn’t stopped him criticising website owner Elon Musk after threatening messages were sent to his son.

Lineker re-shared a private message which said his eldest son, George, should to be ‘burned at the stake’ for his public support of his father in the row over the Government’s immigration policy.

The abusive message described George as a ‘mug’ for ‘sticking up’ for what his father said, adding: ‘You need to be burned at the stake.’

Lineker wrote: ‘Is this acceptable @Twitter @elonmusk? And I don’t mean the grammar.’ Earlier in the day George had tweeted: ‘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.’

Last week, a Panorama investigation highlighted how insiders at Twitter were concerned the site could no longer protect users from harmful content and trolling as a result of widespread staff cuts since Mr Musk took control.

Responding to the claims, Mr Musk tweeted: ‘Sorry for turning Twitter from nurturing paradise into place that has... trolls.’