Twitter Death Threats Against EA Exec "Not a Violation of Rules"

[UPDATE] The Twitter user who lashed out at Moore has since apologized in a series of tweets.

The original story is below.

Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore is a top executive at what has previously been voted the "Worst Company in America," so he's undoubtedly familiar with negative comments. But things went too far this week, when one Twitter user lobbed rape and death threats against him and his family, prompting Moore to report the abuse to Twitter.

Moore shared his side of the story last night, saying on Twitter that he reported the hateful messages to the social networking site. However, as you can see in the response below, Twitter investigated the matter but was unable to take any action because the abusing tweets didn't break any rules.

Below is a sampling of some of the messages Moore received from a Twitter user, who was reportedly angry about EA's FIFA franchise.

• "hurry up and die old man ur ruining video games . The day u die is the day I throw a street party. REMEMBER THAT"
• "remove handicap it's not a joke. Hope ur wife dies in a ditch u scum. Hurry up and die u old prick"
• "u scum I hate u and everything related to u.. I hope u ur wife kids family all die then there's nothing left of u"
• "hope your wife gets raped"

The user, whose Twitter bio states that Peter Moore is "the one person I want to see die," has since spoken out to say his comments represented protected free speech.

Twitter's official "Abusive Policy Behavior" states that users are not allowed to "make direct, specific threats of violence against others." The site also points out that users who believe they are in immediate danger should contact local law enforcement, in addition to reporting it to Twitter.

Just last week, Twitter announced new harassment reporting features that the company says it hopes will make Twitter a safer place.

Online abuse has made national headlines of late. The US Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments over whether or not online harassment should lead to serious penalties, including jail time. You can read more about the proceedings at GameSpot sister site CBS News.