Sheerios pile on the love after Ed Sheeran quits Twitter over 'people saying mean things'

Ed Sheeran has decided to quit Twitter thanks to the barrage of mean comments coming his way. The singer told The Sun that negative remarks made about him drove him to stop using the social media site.

"I go on it and there's nothing but people saying mean things," he said in a recent interview. "Twitter's a platform for that. One comment ruins your day. But that's why I've come off it. The head-f**k for me has been trying to work out why people dislike me so much."

The 26-year-old explained that his Twitter handle will continue to remain active with regular posts but he will not be managing it himself. Instead, he will get his social interaction from family and friends.

"I have people like my dad who will have a conversation with me," he said. "I don't have to have someone calling me a whatever."

Most recently, Sheeran had to defend his performance at Glastonbury after being accused of playing over a backing track rather than a live band. "Never thought I'd have to explain it, but everything I do in my live show is live, it's a loop station, not a backing track. Please google x," he posted online.

"So I think Twitter gets on a massive steam roll of assuming things and then you get in the s***," the Shape Of You hitmaker said after receiving rude comments from Lady Gaga fans who assumed he was dissing her in a particular interview. "And it wasn't anything to do with that at all."

Twitter has become a platform for people to not only connect but troll celebrities, and the Galway Girl singer is not the first one to skip the 140-character limit. Adele, John Bishop, Stephen Fry and Zayn Malik also took hiatuses from the site when faced with brutal cyber bullying.

Unhappy because of the circumstances that drove him to leave the social media site, Sheeran's fans, known as Sheerios, have resurrected the hashtag #SheeriosLoveEd to counter all the negative comments with tweets about why they love the singer – from his "mind-blowing live performances" to his "amazing heart."