Premier League clubs have been left aghast after reporting racist messages to Twitter — only to be told that the use of a monkey emoji does not violate their rules.
Sportsmail understands a number of top-flight sides flagged clearly offensive tweets to the social media giant in which the monkey emoji was used in a hateful manner.
However, they were left stunned when they received responses, including one seen by Sportsmail, telling them that no action would be taken against the offender as they had not broken Twitter's regulations.
A number of sources at various leading Premier League clubs have outlined their frustrations with Twitter, which has more than 330 million users and is valued at more than £30billion.