Cambridge: Mary Beard Sent Twitter Threat

4 August 2013, 08:59 | Updated: 4 August 2013, 09:07

The Cambridge University Professor and TV Presenter, Mary Beard, has been sent a bomb threat via Twitter.

Ms Beard, a professor of classics at the University of Cambridge, said she had contacted police after receiving a message last night claiming a bomb had been left outside her home. 

She wrote on her Twitter page: "Just got 1 of these messages. 

A bomb has been placed outside your home. 

It will go off at exactly 10.47pm and destroy everything. 

Told police.'' 

She later wrote: "OK all, it's 11.00pm and we are still here. 

So unless the trolling bombers timekeeping is rotten.... all is well. 

But how stupidly nasty.'' 

Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, Independent columnist Grace Dent and Europe editor of Time magazine Catherine Mayer, as well as a number of other women, have recently said they had been the subject of bomb threats on the site, while two received threats of rape. 

Tony Wang, Twitter UK general manager, posted a series of tweets yesterday (Saturday) saying abuse was "simply not acceptable''. 

His messages came after the website clarified its rules on abusive behaviour amid a growing backlash over a series of attacks. 

Mr Wang wrote: "I personally apologise to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through. 

The abuse they've received is simply not acceptable. 

It's not acceptable in the real world, and it's not acceptable on Twitter. 

There is more we can and will be doing to protect our users against abuse. 

That is our commitment.'' 

The company has updated its rules to make it clear that abuse will not be tolerated and has put extra staff in place to handle reports of abuse, it said. 

The move comes as Scotland Yard said its e-crime unit was investigating allegations by eight people of abuse on the microblogging site. 

An online petition calling for Twitter to add a "report abuse'' button to tweets has already attracted more than 124,000 signatures. 

An "in-tweet'' report button has been added so people can report abusive behaviour directly from a tweet, Twitter said. 

In separate incidents, Labour MP Stella Creasy and campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who successfully fought for a woman's face to appear on £10 banknotes, were threatened on Twitter with rape. 

Two arrests have already been made in relation to those threats. 

The anonymous Twitter accounts from which the bomb threats originated were suspended, although screen grabs were widely circulated online. 

Scotland Yard said an investigation into eight allegations had been launched. 

The force said: "Detectives from the Specialist Organised & Economic Crime Command have taken responsibility for the investigations into a number of allegations recently made to the MPS relating to allegations of malicious communication made on the social networking site Twitter. 

The Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), who hold the police national cyber crime remit, is now investigating allegations made by eight people that they have been subject to harassment, malicious communication or bomb threats.''

It said the decision was taken to centralise the individual investigations, including three from outside London.