How can we stop racist abuse online for good?
After England lost to Italy last week in the Euros final, the country was shocked at the horrific racist abuse aimed at English footballers Marcus Rashford, 23, Jadon Sancho, 21, and 19-year-old Bukayo Saka, who missed their penalties. Hundreds of fans later gathered at a mural of Rashford in Manchester after it was defaced.
The online trolling was widely condemned. England Captain Harry
Kane posted on Twitter, “They deserve support and backing not the vile racist abuse they’ve had since last night. If you abuse anyone on social media you’re not an England fan and we don’t want you.”
Bukayo Saka said, “To the social media platforms Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, I don’t want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that me, Marcus and Jadon received.”
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri admitted to moderation mistakes over racist comments. He Tweeted, “We have technology to try and prioritise reports, and we were mistakenly marking some of these as benign comments, which they are absolutely not.”
Twitter removed 1,000 Tweets and a spokesperson assured they’d “continue to play our part in curbing this unacceptable behaviour both online and offline.” However, campaigners have called for companies to do more, faster, and a petition calling for fans who are racist online to be banned from England matches for life has already got over a million signatures.
PM Boris Johnson spoke to social media managers to discuss the issue of racist abuse online last week. He said, “We expect social media companies to do everything they can to identify these people.” He added, “Unless they get hate and racism off their platforms, they will face fines.”
Meanwhile, former glamour model Katie Price (aka Jordan’s) #trackatroll petition has been signed by over half a million people. She has been campaigning since March for people to have verified ID to sign up for a social media account in a bid to stop anonymous trolling, which her son Harvey has been repeatedly subjected to. The petition has already been debated in parliament but the new signatures have increased pressure on the government, and the proposal is supported by a dozen MPs.
Closer speaks to two women who have been subjected to abuse and asks what can be done to stamp it out for good...