‘Ghostbusters’ actress Leslie Jones urges Twitter to act on racist abuse

Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones has urged Twitter to take more action against online trolls after she was subjected to horrific racist abuse.

The American actress said she felt numb as she shared a string of racist tweets she had been sent on social media.

“I’m not stupid to not know racism exists,” she wrote on Twitter. “And I know it will probably live on way after me. But we have to make people take responsibility.

“Twitter I understand you got free speech I get it. But there has to be some guidelines when you let spread like that. You can see on the profiles that some of these people are crazy sick. It’s not enough to freeze Acct. They should be reported.”

The Saturday Night Live star said she now understood why some celebrities did not have Twitter accounts and insisted trolls must “take responsibility for the hate they spew”.

“Stop letting the ignorant people be the loud ones,” she wrote. “Y’all I got more love than hate but they louder. F*** that be louder.

“I feel like I’m in a personal hell. I didn’t do anything to deserve this. It’s just too much. It shouldn’t be like this. So hurt right now.”

The hashtag LoveForLeslieJ began trending on Twitter after Jones highlighted the abuse she was suffering online.

Ghostbusters director Paul Feig tweeted: “Leslie Jones is one of the greatest people I know. Any personal attacks against her are attacks against us all.”

A Twitter spokesman said: “This type of abusive behaviour is not permitted on Twitter, and we’ve taken action on many of the accounts reported to us by both Leslie and others.”