Fry rescinds Twitter quit threat

Stephen Fry has withdrawn his threat to leave Twitter because of the "unkind" comments from others.

Stephen Fry has withdrawn his threat to leave Twitter because of the "unkind" comments from others.

The actor and writer, who suffers from bipolar disorder, is one of the most followed people on Twitter but the comments of another user last week upset him so much that he was prompted to write online: "I'm obviously not good enough. I retire from Twitter henceforward. Bye everyone."

His tweet was directed to another Twitter user who had described Fry's input to the microblogging site as "a bit... boring".

Fry went on to write: "Think I may have to give up on Twitter. Too much aggression and unkindness around. Pity. Well, it's been fun.

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He then added: "Well maybe I'll see how I feel in a few days. Very low and depressed at the moment and any drop of meanness makes it so much worse. Sorry."

However this morning on the site, he rescinded his threat to quit. "Arrived in LA feeling very foolish. Wasn't the fault of the fellow who called me 'boring', BTW. A mood thing. Sunshine will help. So sorry," he wrote.

The comedian has over 920,000 people signed up to receive his regular updates and in response to his threats to leave, many bombarded him with tweets urging him to stay.

They range from constructive suggestions to gushing messages of adoration.

"Instead of leaving why not use your influence to raise awareness of how much cyber-bullying affects lives?" wrote one user.

Another tweeted: "Dearest Stephen-the fragility of the tender soul is what makes it so special like the wings of a butterfly - stay."

Many more left suggestions for Fry about how to lift his mood - and said Twitter would be a poorer service without him.

Fry has spoken openly about his battle with mental illness and has campaigned for mental health charities.

He recently spoke out on behalf of another bipolar disorder sufferer facing execution in China, describing the "mood swings" that the condition caused.

PA