Collymore quits Twitter after ex-lover Ulrika Jonsson brands him a hypocrite

The former England striker was the target for internet trolls who racially abused him and sent him death threats, which led him to call on Twitter to sort out the problem.

But his account appeared to be deactivated after The Sun published an interview with Jonsson on its front page.

She told The Sun: “No one should give this man a platform to claim he is a victim. With his history of violence it is beyond ironic.”

Collymore attacked Jonsson in a Paris bar during the 1998 World Cup when they were dating. He later blamed petulance, jealousy and too much drink.

His @stancollymore account, which had 503,000 followers, was deactivated overnight.

The 43-year-old ex-Liverpool player, from Cannock, Staffordshire, was singled out by some Reds fans after he claimed the Kop star Luis Suarez dived to win a penalty against Aston Villa.

Internet trolls joined the abuse and he was sent racist messages and death threats.

Staffordshire Police are investigating.

Twitter’s alleged inaction led Collymore’s employer talkSPORT to announce it would no longer promote the social networking site on air.

Chief executive Scott Taunton said: “It seems inconceivable that a hi-tech company with a market capitalisation of 30 billion dollars appears incapable of preventing racist and abusive tweets being broadcast across its platform.”

In a statement on its own site, Twitter told users: “Direct, targeted abuse and specific threats of violence are against our rules. You can let us know if you see abusive Tweets by using the new ‘Report Tweet’ button or through our online forms.”

Twitter said its trust and safety team, which is being increased in size, works 24 hours a day to respond to reports of abusive tweets.

Twitter’s statement added: “We also have a clear process for working with the police and are in ongoing communication with relevant UK police forces to make sure they are aware of our policies.

“Twitter is an open communications platform. Our priority is that users are able to express themselves, within acceptable limits and, of course, within the law.

“We cannot stop people from saying offensive, hurtful things on the internet or on Twitter. But we take action when content is reported to us that breaks our rules or is illegal.”