STERLING: SILENCE THE TROLLS
England star demands action to end abuse
RAHEEM StErling is leading fresh calls to social media companies to take action after a groundbreaking study revealed the alarming scale of online racism and abuse aimed at footballers.
Analysis of thousands of messages sent publicly on twitter to 44 current and former players in the six- week Project restart period last season has revealed 56 per cent of the abuse was racist and 43 per cent (13 out of 30) of the Premier league players were subjected to racist abuse.
A staggering 50 per cent of the 3,000- plus abusive messages recorded during the pilot study were sent to just three players — Sterling, Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha and Wycombe striker Adebayo Akinfenwa.
the players have had enough, with England and Manchester City star Sterling saying: ‘i don’t know how many times i need to say this, but football and the social media platforms need to step up, show real leadership and take proper action in tackling online abuse. the technology is there to make a difference, but i’m increasingly questioning if there is the will.’
Akinfenwa added: ‘Players don’t want warm words of comfort from football’s authorities and social media giants. the time for talking has passed. We now need action by those who can make a difference.’
Of the racist abuse, 29 per cent came in the form of emojis. And the length of time for which some remained visible, due to their context not being automatically detected by any measures twitter have in place, highlighted a ‘weak point in twitter’s efforts to deal with racism’. the issue was labelled a ‘blindspot’ for the platform.
the PFA Charity’s study was backed by anti- discrimination organisation Kick it Out and carried out by data science company Signify, who scanned 825,515 messages sent publicly to the 44 players on twitter.
it contains a string of recommendations for the government, football’s authorities, clubs, players and social media companies — including that they start to recognise emojis as a potential tool of discrimination and abuse.
Worryingly, the study says that ‘the worst, most threatening messages are sent via private, direct channels’. Of the total posts sent, 11,000 were deemed offensive or controversial and more than 3,000 explicitly abusive. One player alone received a third of the homophobic abuse.
Based on the findings, it is estimated 40 per cent of players ‘are suffering discriminatory abuse from fans on a routine basis’. Depressingly, the vitriol and sickening posts significantly increased after Sterling, Zaha and Akinfenwa called out racism, highlighting the repercussions players face when they attempt to take a stand.
Zaha highlighted the scale of the problem when he posted a string of messages he had been sent directly on social media ahead of Crystal Palace’s trip to Aston Villa in July, which led to the arrest of a 12-year-old boy.
the number of messages directed at Zaha afterwards multiplied five-fold. Some of the interactions were supportive but there was also a clear spike in abuse in the following 48 hours.
Sterling was similarly targeted twice — following City’s win over his old club liverpool and after he spoke out about the ‘ White lives Matter’ banner flown over the Etihad during City’s 5-0 win over Burnley.
When Akinfenwa posted about allegations that he was repeatedly called a ‘fat water buffalo’ by a Fleetwood official, his interactions shot up from 70 mentions per day in the previous three weeks to 1,185 a day in the following 48 hours.