Twitter permanently suspends Grace Tame abuse account over ‘violent threats’

An account allegedly belonging to the childhood abuser of Grace Tame has been permanently suspended from Twitter after a series of ‘violent threats’.

Twitter has “permanently” frozen an account allegedly belonging to the man who sexually abused former Australian of the Year Grace Tame after a series of messages that broke the social network’s rules about “violent threats”.

Ms Tame took to Twitter late on Monday following ominous messages from an account that appeared to be owned by Nicolaas Bester, the former St Michael’s Collegiate School teacher jailed for one year and nine months for abusing her.

On Tuesday morning, a Twitter person confirmed the account had been banned outright.

“We have permanently suspended the account in question for violating the Twitter Rules and our policies,” he said.

The user will no longer be able to tweet or interact with other content on the platform.

In the offending tweets, the person had referred to an email address once used by Ms Tame to set up a Facebook account, saying there was “a good old come-upppance on its way”.

“I’ve reported them to police but our reactive justice system is too slow, and nothing’s changed,” Ms Tame wrote.

While it’s been a largely positive experience in the public eye, and I’m eternally grateful for the unflinching support, it might come as a shock, even to some close to me, that I am still dealing with open threats and harassment from the man who abused me and others. pic.twitter.com/vlPC1tF5zt

— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) August 29, 2022

“I know this is an experience many others would be able to relate to.

“This might not be the ideal platform to address this situation, but if not here, and if not now, then I ask, where and when?”

After a flood of reports, Twitter had removed some of the user’s tweets by 11pm, finding they “violated the Twitter rules”.

Shortly before midnight, the tech giant also suspended and locked the man’s account — a suspension which is now permanent.

“We locked (the) account for breaking our violent threats rule. We found they broke our violent threats rule through different reports we received about their behaviour,” the company said.

Grace Tame addresses the media at the National Press Club. Picture: Getty Images

It comes ahead of Ms Tame’s memoir, The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner, is due to be published in September.

In her Twitter thread, Ms Tame said “he doesn’t scare me anymore”, adding it was an act of reclaiming her power.

Ms Tame was 15 when she was sexually abused by 58-year-old Nicolaas Bester in Tasmania.

She was prevented from identifying herself as a survivor of assault under Tasmanian laws until 2019, and she was named Australian of the year two years later.

“I have the power to be vulnerable. He will never have that. He is too afraid, and too weak. He is too weak to be vulnerable. Instead, he exploits others who are. He knows no other way to be,” she said.

“I see that now. And because of that, he doesn’t scare me anymore.”

A spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner said anyone targeted online with “menacing, threatening or offensive” material “intended to cause serious harm” should report it to the social network first, and to the Commission if no action had been taken within 48 hours.

Under the Online Safety Act, the Commission could issue “a removal notice, backed by serious civil penalties for non-compliance”.

“While eSafety cannot comment on individual matters, we are aware of cases involving perpetrators using social media and other digital platforms to harass, intimidate and threaten victim survivors,” the spokesperson said.

“Tech-facilitated abuse such as this can take many forms, including the posting of menacing material online.”

Originally published as Twitter permanently suspends Grace Tame abuse account over ‘violent threats’