BALE BACKS BOYCOTT OF SOCIAL MEDIA OVER VILE ABUSE

GARETH BALE has suggested that sports stars stage a mass boycott of social media until companies clamp down on abuse. The Wales captain’s team-mates Rabbi Matondo and Ben Cabango received racist messages on Instagram after Saturday’s 1-0 friendly win over Mexico. Police are looking into the matter and Facebook, which owns Instagram, says it has permanently removed the trolls’ accounts. But Bale thinks it may now be time for footballers and other famous people to take a stand by coming off social media, just like Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry did last week. ‘If everyone came together and decided to boycott social media to make a statement… if everybody did it at once, not just one or two, but a campaign where a lot of influential people in sport and in other walks of life came off, then I definitely think it could help. If that is the case, I am all for that,’ said Bale ahead of tonight’s World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic.

This season a host of high-profile players have been targeted online, with data collected by the Premier League showing seven out of 10 cases come from users living outside the UK. The international nature of the issue makes it harder for trolls to be punished by the law, but Bale is backing calls for technology giants to introduce some form of identity verification instead. He added: ‘Something needs to happen in terms of the social media companies, a passport maybe, because then you’d be able to chase them down and hold

them accountable for what they are saying. ‘At the moment people can create an account, say something, delete it, then you never know who they are or where they are from. That would stop people saying these horrible things.’ Meanwhile, three Wales players — Tyler Roberts, Hal Robson-Kanu and Matondo — have been released from the squad after breaking the team curfew. Leeds forward Roberts said: ‘Gutted to be leaving the camp early but rules are rules and I shouldn’t have been up in the hotel later than the set time.’ l Wales v Czech Rep, 7.45pm,