A COUNCILLOR fell victim to an abusive Twitter user when discussing housing issues online.

Councillor Debbie Young, who represents Chalford on Stroud District Council, was having a discussion on Twitter with a friend when another user joined the debate and became increasingly abusive.

“This man, I can’t remember his Twitter handle, was becoming increasingly abusive to me,” said the Conservative councillor.

“He butted into a conversation I was having about housing and called me a moronic idiot.”

The unpleasant messages continued all evening and Cllr Young eventually decided to block the man from her Twitter account.

“I stamped it out really quickly, but I also retweeted it to embarrass the person as a way of asking if that kind of behaviour on Twitter was acceptable,” she said.

“Why people say that kind of thing on social media when they would never say it to your face, I don’t know.”

“Sometimes I wonder if people on Twitter don’t know if you’re a real person.”

But the experience hasn’t put Cllr Young off using Twitter as a way of keeping connected with the community.

She said: “I’ve found Twitter to be a bonus – I’ve met so many people. And out of the thousands of Tweets I send, to only have one person trolling me is pretty good going.”

A Twitter troll is someone who posts insulting or inflammatory remarks purely to upset people.

The issue of Twitter trolling was brought to light in the national media in 2013 when the feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez received huge numbers of abusive tweets while campaigning to have author Jane Austen on the £10 bank note.