PLAYERS ‘WILL KILL THEMSELVES’ OVER ONLINE ABUSE

ANTON FERDINAND warned social media companies yesterday that a footballer will kill themself if racial abuse of players is not tackled on their platforms.

During a powerful testimony at the Home Affairs Committee inquiry, the former defender accused Instagram and Twitter of ignoring the issue and ‘waiting’ for a tragedy.

Ferdinand, whose brother Rio will give evidence to MPs and peers today, said: ‘(Social media) is built to make you addicted to it, you can’t put it down once you start scrolling. There is a mental health issue of not being able to escape it.

‘My worry is, what are the social media companies waiting for? Are they waiting for a high-profile footballer to kill themselves, or a member of their family to commit suicide? Because if they’re waiting for that, it’s too late. Let’s deal with the issue now.

‘This comes down to if (social media companies) really want to make change. So far, their words are that they want to but their actions are

different.’ The former West Ham, Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers star previously produced a documentary called Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism and Me about the problem. Research by the Professional Footballers’ Association recently found that 44 per cent of Premier League players with a social media account received abusive messages. After the Euro 2020 final, which England lost to Italy, there was a spike in racist abuse towards Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford. Ferdinand asked why social media companies allowed users to create accounts without verifying their identity. He also suggested that similar technology to predictive text could be applied to spot abusive words before a tweet is sent. Accusing them of making money out of racism, the 36-year-old continued: ‘They don’t want to implement (technology to limit abuse) because if I retweet a racist tweet that has been put my way, the frenzy around it is monetary to them.’ Instagram and Twitter had representatives at the inquiry. Katy Minshall, Twitter’s head of UK public policy, said: ‘The challenge is the ease with which people can contact footballers and that’s where we’re starting to focus a lot of our work.’