Beauty queen hopeful battling acne slams trolls as MPs prepare to grill social media chiefs

Rachel Crawley Credit: Rachel Crawley

A beauty queen hopeful who has suffered from severe acne has revealed her cyber-bullying torment as MPs prepare to grill social media companies over their response to hate crime and abuse.

Rachel Crawley, 22, who set up an Instagram account to bravely share her battle with her skin, told how she was trolled by people calling her "herpes face", "gross", and "ugly ugly ugly".

After changing to a plant-based diet, Rachel's skin, and her confidence, improved hugely and she is now preparing for April's final of Miss Preston.

Although she is now "strong" against the online bullies, she believes others may not be and that more should be done to control online abuse.

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain about the bullies, she said: "Some of them, you don't even see who they are. They'll have a picture that's not even of them.

"Whether there's something they can do, so that they can't set up these [anonymous] profiles, or so that they're not anonymous, and then they have to be themselves."

Presenter Piers Morgan agreed with Rachel, adding: "Removing the ability to be anonymous in doing stuff is a key part of going forward on all platforms of social media. If these people had to be identified, they wouldn't be nearly as brave in their abuse, I don't think."

Rachel is preparing to compete for the title of Miss Preston Credit: Rachel Crawley/GMB

Senior representatives of Google, Facebook and Twitter will appear at the Commons Home Affairs committee later today to be quizzed about their firms' efforts to tackle hatred and abuse on their platforms.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chair of the Committee, said: "We've seen too many cases of vile online hate crimes, harassment or threats where social media companies have failed to act.

"It cannot be beyond the wit and means of multibillion-dollar social media companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google to develop ways to better protect users from hatred and abuse.

"They have a duty to do so. We will be asking the companies about specific cases, why they didn't act, and what they intend to do about it now."