English football is ready to join a boycott of social media in an effort to combat racist attacks on player accounts. The Premier League, the English Football League, the Women’s Premier League, and the women’s tournaments, along with the game’s governing bodies and organizations such as Kick It Out, have canceled their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts from April 30 to May 1.
In a joint statement, the group said the boycott aims to “ensure that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate.” “Social media is now, unfortunately, a regular repository of abuse. Bhandari,” said Kick It Out president Sanjay. “This boycott represents our collective outrage at the damage it inflicts on players who play and watch football.”
The joint statement also cited an open letter signed by English football in February, which asked social media companies to quickly filter, block and remove offensive posts, while improving the account verification process.
Social media companies have received widespread criticism for allowing racist attacks on footballers to continue on their platforms.
Several players have been mistreated in recent weeks, including my Liverpool teammates Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita. In response to a question about the episode, a Twitter spokesperson said: “Racist behavior, abuse and harassment have absolutely no place in our service, and besides our football partners, we condemn racism in all its forms.” We are deeply committed to ensuring that the chatting football on our service is safe for fans, players and everyone involved in the game. “
Facebook, the owner of Instagram, said it is “committed to fighting hate and racism on our platform, but we also know that these problems are bigger than we are, so we hope to continue our work with industry partners to solve the problem .– both online and offline.”
Instagram recently launched a new tool that automatically filters abusive messages from accounts that users did not recognize.
Earlier this month, Swansea City FC and players from Premier League Rangers boycotted social media for a week after their stars were shot online.
Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry has also announced that he will shut down his accounts until social media companies do more to prevent online abuse.
Speaking to CNN Sport, Henry said that social media is “neither a safe place nor a safe environment”. He continued: “I would say that it is an important tool, unfortunately, some people turn into a weapon because they can hide behind a fake account.”
The English football announcement was well received by the players, as Sheffield United striker David McGoldrick told Sky Sports it was time to do more.
The group also asked the UK government to introduce legislation “to make social media companies more accountable for what happens on their platforms”.
“It is simply unacceptable that people in English football and in society at large remain victims of discriminatory abuse online in a daily newspaper,” added Edeline John, Director of International Relations and Corporate Affairs and Associate Partner of the Football Association for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The real one on the culprits. “This needs to change quickly and we continue to urge social media companies to take action now to solve this problem.”
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