BBC presenter Jeremy Vine has slammed social media as a “massive fountain of sewage” after he was wrongly accused of being the star who allegedly paid a teenager for sex pictures.
Vine was one of at least four top male BBC presenters who were forced to distance themselves from wild and defamatory speculation circulating on social media on Saturday.
Vine was trending on Twitter at one point and had to make clear to his 788,000 followers that he was in no way linked to the explicit images storm.
Speaking on his eponymous Channel 5 show this morning, Vine said: “Over the weekend, a number of names were thrown in… I was shocked that my name [appeared] … This is what social media does. It’s just basically a massive fountain of sewage, and someone needs to put a cap on it.”
Radio host Nicky Campbell also voiced dismay at being linked with The Sun‘s story about the BBC presenter, who is not being named in the UK for legal reasons.
Speaking on his Radio 5 Live and BBC News channel show, Campbell said he was in contact with the police about the accusations.
“It was a distressing weekend, I can’t deny it, for me and others falsely named,” he said. “Today I’m having further communication with the police in terms of malicious communication and with lawyers in terms of defamation.”
Deadline emailed Twitter for comment and the social media company auto replied with a poop emoji.