A The Only Way Is Essex legend's house was threatened by an online troll.
Bobby Norris has shockingly revealed the vile online hate and death threats he's received due to his sexuality. Chatting on FUBAR Radio's 'Politics Uncensored', the 38 year old TV star spilled the beans on the brutal homophobic abuse he got during his time on the hit reality show.
Opening up to co-host Ellen Coughlan, Bobby said: "I love social media, but I've been through it, and this is something actually, I'm not sure if a lot of people will know, but I think back in I think 2019, I was on a big reality show at the time, and was receiving a huge amount of abuse on social media, predominantly because of my sexuality."
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He confessed to some terrifying experiences: "There was this one, I think another death threat come through. And when I say that it sounds so flippant, but it was literally just another one was outside my house and was going to petrol bomb me."
Despite facing these dire threats, Bobby remained steadfast: "It was a tough time. I've got a thick skin. So I was never losing sleep over it. And I was very aware. I thought, I can deal with this. "
But he also recognised the younger Bobby wouldn't have been able to handle such severe harassment. Reflecting, he admitted: "But I know 13 or 14 year old Bobby couldn't have dealt with it. They were not just saying, Bob, I don't like your hair. I don't like your blow dry today, or I don't like that Louis Vuitton bag. No, we're talking really dark stuff."
Driven by his experiences, Bobby took action to instigate change, creating a petition from his bedroom and advocating for the classification of online homophobia as a specific offence – a campaign he pursued passionately for around four to five years. Bobby remarked: "Well, yeah, it's been in law for one year now, yeah, to put an aim to or to have some kind of legislation around how people can speak online."
"I went to Downing Street. I've been to Parliament several times for debates, and thankfully, after four or five years of campaigning, it's become a law, and it is the Online Safety Act.", reports the Mirror. "It isn't about the snowflake generation saying that they don't like something about you. It's not opinion based. We're talking threats violence, threats violence, discrimination, dark stuff."
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