Bartley frustrated at lack of action on racist abuse on social media
Hitting social media companies in the pocket for failing to police online abuse will have a greater impact than appealing to their conscience, according to Scottish FA equality advisor Marvin Bartley.
Speaking to The Scotsman after major sponsors pledged to join the upcoming social media boycott by footballers and clubs in england, the livingston captain welcomes the protest south of the border and hopes the involvement of companies who invest in the game will make a difference.
A high-profile coalition of English football' s main governing bodies and organisations, including the Football Association, Premier League and EFL will suspend all use of their social media accounts from 3pm on Friday until 11.59pm on Monday in a show of solidarity against racism, online abuse and threatening behaviour.
They are set to be joined by the FA Women's Super League, FA Women' s Championship, Professional Footballers' Association, league managers associ at ion,pgmol,kicki tout, women in Football and the Football Supporters' Association. Nothing similar is planned in Scotland.
Bartley, recently appointed to his equality advisor role, has little faith in online platforms to do the right thing without being coerced. He hopes the fact that Adidas, which manufactures more than a third of Eplk its, is halting social media advertising during the boycott can kickstart change. Bartley said: “The hierarchy at these social media companies can see what is going on, but they must sit in meetings and decide to just ignoreit.it’snotasiftheyarenot seeing racism.
“But all they care about is that all these faceless accounts and fake profiles are pushing their numbers up and that allows them to charge more for advertising. So it doesn’t suit them to police it and only allow legitimate accounts or to throw people off. Until it costs them money, then they just won’t care. They are happy to let racism carry on.
“That’s why it is good that sponsors and advertisers are getting on board. That’s when things might change.”
Aston Villa and Everton’s shirt sponsor, Cazoo, were the first major football sponsors to announce its support, with several others expected to follow suit.
Barclays, the title sponsor of the WSL and the official bank of the Premier League will also support the blackout, silencing all social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Bartley said people in power need to stop talking about it and act.
“The government is not blameless in this either,” he said. “The silence is deafening and it is so, so sad that people are still experiencing this. I still get it.iw as called then word but when it was reported to Instagram they said they couldn’t do anything because it didn’t go against their code of conduct! It shows these companies don’t care but maybe if it starts costing them advertisers and money, they might start.”