Football clubs and players in England have begun a four-day boycott of social media to protest against online racial abuse. The boycott, officials noted, is also to call on social media companies to do more to police their platforms.
The boycott announcement was initially made in a joint statement by the English Football Association,;Premier League, English Football League, Women’s Super League, Women’s Championship as well as player, manager and referee bodies,;anti-discrimination group Kick It Out and the Women in Football group.
However, during the course of the week, other English sports;including cricket, rugby, tennis and horse racing also joined the movement. International organizations including UEFA have also joined the campaign.
Speaking to reporters, UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin urged;“everyone – players, clubs and national associations – to lodge formal complaints whenever players, coaches, referees or officials;are victims of unacceptable tweets or messages.
“We have had enough of these cowards who hide behind their anonymity to spew out their noxious ideologies.”
The President of the English FA, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William also announced that he is joining the boycott.
“As President of the FA, I join the entire football community in the social media boycott this weekend.”
The Formula 1, hasn’t announced;formal plans to join the boycott, but drivers including seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton said he would;be supporting the campaign.
“To stand in solidarity with the football community, I will be going dark on my social media channels this weekend.
“There is no place in our society for any kind of abuse, online or not, and;for too long it’s been easy for a small few to post hate from behind their screens. While a boycott might not solve this issue overnight, we have to call for change when needed…”.
‘Absolutely unacceptable situation’
The English FA has mounted pressure on social media companies to do more to prevent racial abuses on their platforms.
Earlier this week, the Professional Footballers’ Association, (PFA), which represents players in England and Wales, said it had;conducted;an investigation which showed;that 31 out of 56 discriminatory and abusive messages reported;to Twitter in November 2020, were still visible on the site.
The PFA also said it had provided Twitter with a list of another 18 tweets that included;“targeted, extreme, racist abuse” directed at players, and 15 of them were still live.
Speaking to the issue, PFA Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Simone Pound intimated;that “This situation is absolutely unacceptable.”
“While the platforms repeatedly stress that they are doing all they can to combat online abuse, extreme racist abuse remains visible on Twitter five months after we provided them with clear evidence of abusive content.
“For people to believe that social networks are taking this issue seriously, we need to see them addressing the issue and finding solutions.”
The boycott is set to last;until 22:59 GMT on Monday, 3rd May. Sponsors such as Adidas, Barclays, Budweiser, Nationwide and Cazoo and broadcasters including Sky Sports, BT Sport and talkSPORT have all joined the campaign.
The boycott means that if even if Manchester City clinches the Premier League trophy on Sunday, 2nd May, the club will not even celebrate the title on social media.
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