‘Something drastic’: Stuart Broad would back social media boycott over abuse
Stuart Broad has suggested England’s cricket team would be willing to join football clubs’ boycotting of social media in order to “make a stand” against online abuse.
The Championship clubs Swansea and Birmingham and the recently crowned Scottish champions, Rangers, are in the midst of a week-long social media blackout in protest against racist abuse of individuals. The former Arsenal and France forward Thierry Henry has also quit all platforms for the same reason while the Liverpool captain, Jordan Henderson, has made his feelings on the issue clear by handing control of his accounts to an anti-cyberbullying charity.
More action from within football is expected to follow as anger grows over social media companies’ inability to deal with online abuse and Broad has now outlined the possibility of England’s
leading cricketers also taking a stance.
“I think it is definitely worth a conversation,” Broad said. “It’s a really strong message. You don’t want a small minority to ruin the opportunities you get through social media but do you need something drastic to stop it or should there be more responsibility with app creators and more liability?”
Cricketers have not been immune to online abuse: Jofra Archer reported at least two racially motivated attacks on Instagram last year, while last week Moeen Ali, now playing in the Indian Premier League for Chennai Super Kings, was abused on Twitter by the political activist and author Taslima Nasreen. He was defended by fellow cricketers Saqib Mahmood and Ben Duckett, who wrote: “This is the problem with this app. People being able to say stuff like this. Disgusting. Things need to change, please report this account!”
“There are great positives to social media but if we have to lose those positives for a period of time to make a stand then I’d be well up for that,” Broad told PA Media while taking part in NatWest’s CricketForce GetSetWeekend, a virtual curtain-raiser for the grassroots game. “It beggars belief that someone could write some of the messages to my teammates that they have to Jofra. If you said some of the stuff people say on social media on the street, it wouldn’t end well would it?
“If there was action it would come from the leaders in our dressing room and if the team felt like change needed to happen we’ve got some really great people above us in the hierarchy, like Ashley Giles and Tom Harrison, that would be very open to what the team’s beliefs were.”