Dylan Bettencourt
The ten professional associations in English football, as well as the clubs playing under them, will shut down their social media from Friday 30 April until Monday 3 May. This is in response to the ongoing racist abuse of black players on their social media platforms.
The associations sent a letter to social media platforms requesting that they take more drastic steps to deal with online discrimination.
They outlined that the most efficient way to do this was by filtering, blocking and faster takedowns of posts which are deemed offensive.
The UK government has also been called to take further action in the fight against online abuse by strengthening their Online Safety Bill so that social media platforms are held more accountable for what takes place on their specific platforms.
Richard Masters, Premier League Chief Executive said: “The Premier League and our clubs stand alongside football in staging this boycott to highlight the urgent need for social media companies to do more in eliminating racial hatred.”
Sanjay Bhandari, Chair of Kick It Out, an organisation created to challenge discrimination in the football world said: “Social media is now sadly a regular vessel for toxic abuse. This boycott signifies our collective anger at the damage this causes to the people who play, watch and work in the game.”
The Premier League previously took the initiative of taking the knee before kick-off to display their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter campaign and this boycott marks an increased effort towards removing racism from the sport.
Picture source: @SkyNews
