Rabbi Matondo Criticises Instagram After Wales Players Racially Abused
The Wales winger Rabbi Matondo has criticised Instagram after he and teammate Ben Cabango were racially abused online following their friendly win over Mexico.
Stoke loanee Matondo and Swansea defender Cabango both started Wales’ 1-0 victory at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday night. Matondo wrote on Twitter: “And it continues … another week of instagram doing absolutely nothing about racial abuse.
My insta will get taken down if I post any clips from my games though … priorities” The Football Association of Wales has been asked to comment.
The Wales pair join a growing list of black players who have been subjected to online abuse in recent weeks. The Manchester United quartet of Anthony Martial, Axel Tuanzebe, Marcus Rashford and Fred have all been targeted, with the latter saying “we cannot feed that culture” after being racially abused last weekend. Thierry Henry described racism on social media as “too toxic to ignore” and disabled all of his accounts on Saturday following the recent instances on the platform.
Earlier this month, UK’s football policing lead Detective Chief Constable Mark Roberts said the response of social media companies in assisting the police to identify abusers has been “woeful”. At the time a spokesperson for Facebook, which also owns Instagram, said the company “will continue to work with the police and wider industry to collectively tackle this issue”.