Ronaldo’s top of the league
( for most abused player)
SEVEN in 10 Premier League footballers are subject to abuse on Twitter, with Cristiano Ronaldo receiving the most hate, a report has found. Manchester United players make up eight of the 10 most targeted stars, with Ronaldo, Harry Maguire and Marcus Rashford receiving more than 20,000 abusive tweets between them.
The study by Ofcom and The Alan Turing Institute found hundreds of abusive tweets are sent to footballers around the clock.
This equates to nearly 60,000 abusive messages directed towards Premier League players in the first half of last season alone — an average of 362 every day, or one every four minutes.
Shockingly, one in 12 of these attacks ( 8.6 per cent) targeted a player’s race or another protected characteristic.
The report comes ahead of the Online Safety Bill, which is expected to return to the Commons before the autumn.
The bill is likely to introduce rules for sites and apps such as social media, search engines and messaging platforms — as well as other services that people use to share content online.
Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s group director for Broadcasting and Online Content, said: ‘ These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game. Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort.
‘Social media firms needn’t wait for new laws to make their sites and apps safer for users. When we become the regulator for online safety, tech companies will have to be really open about the steps they are taking to protect users. We will expect them to design their services with safety in mind.
‘Supporters can also play a positive role in protecting the game they love. Our research shows the vast majority of online fans behave responsibly, and as the new season kicks off we are asking them to report unacceptable, abusive posts whenever they see them.’ The report said that while the majority of football fans use social media responsibly, up to 3.5 per cent of tweets included in the study were abusive.
While household names like Ronaldo and Harry Kane bore much of the brunt, 68 per cent of players still received at least one abusive tweet, and one in 14 (seven per cent) received abuse every day.
Dr Bertie Vidgen, lead author of the report and head of online safety at The Alan Turing Institute, added: ‘These stark findings uncover the extent to which footballers are subjected to vile abuse across social media.
‘Prominent players receive messages from thousands of accounts daily on some platforms, and it wouldn’t have been possible to find all the abuse without innovative AI techniques.
‘ While tackling online abuse is difficult, we cannot leave it unchallenged. More must be done to stop the worst forms of content to ensure that players can do their job without being subjected to abuse.’