Social media platforms are under unprecedented pressure from British football over racist abuse, with three clubs announcing week-long boycotts and Jordan Henderson handing over control of his accounts to an anti-cyberbullying charity.
Swansea City were joined by Glasgow Rangers and Birmingham City in the boycott, with the clubs frustrated about the lack of action from the social media giants. The boycott is expected to spread now that several Premier League managers are supporting the move, which is backed by the anti-discrimination group Kick It out.
Last month the former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry deleted his social media accounts to protest against platforms for failing to take action against account holders, most of them anonymous, who post racial hate.
Swansea were the first to announce the move, with all staff and players from the men’s, women’s and youth teams boycotting Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok. The Sky Bet Championship club said in a statement: “Enough is enough.”
Several Swansea players have been racially abused in recent weeks, including Jamal Lowe, who was targeted at the weekend. The club have more than one million Twitter followers.
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Julian Winter, Swansea’s chief executive, has also written to Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, and Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, calling for stricter policing and punishments.
On Wednesday, Liverpool condemned those responsible for the “abhorrent” racial abuse of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Naby Keita and Sadio Mané on social media after the 3-1 Champions League defeat by Real Madrid. Henderson, the Liverpool captain, has handed over control of his social media accounts to the Cybersmile Foundation to raise awareness about the impact online abuse can have on victims.
“I have seriously considered deleting my social media accounts in the last few weeks but instead I want to use my platforms to try to drive positive change,” Henderson said.
Rangers acted after their midfielder Glen Kamara was targeted “every day” since reporting racist abuse from Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela during a Europa League match last month. A Uefa investigation is due to be completed next week.
Sam Allardyce, the West Bromwich Albion head coach, revealed that his striker Callum Robinson received “over 70 messages” of a discriminatory nature on social media after scoring twice against Chelsea at the weekend. Robinson reported a racist response to one of his Instagram messages, and his club subsequently reported the incident to the police, who are investigating.
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Allardyce said: “We’ve had two other incidents, but nothing bad — messages from, apparently, 20 different [accounts] on Instagram. Within football we’ve gone forward in a positive manner, but outside the law is where these lads live. The solution can only be brought about by people in government and [those] who run these sites, who are clearly neglecting their responsibility to cut out these forms of discrimination and racist remarks.”
A Facebook spokesman said that the company, which owns Instagram, had deleted many posts and accounts for breaking its rules, and repeated previous assurances that stronger measures are being put in place.
Allardyce, Brighton & Hove Albion’s Graham Potter, Fulham’s Scott Parker and Southampton’s Ralph Hasenhüttl all expressed support for Swansea’s boycott move.
