TROLL FACES NO ACTION AFTER ABUSING DUFFY

SOCIAL media companies’ promise to clamp down on vile abuse directed at footballers has been exposed as nothing more than lip service — after an Instagram user escaped sanctions for targeting Celtic defender Shane Duffy with horrific messages. The Republic of Ireland international was sent sectarian abuse and had the death of his father mocked by someone on the platform. But it was confirmed yesterday that, because the individual deleted the messages and apologised, Instagram would be taking no further action. Duffy shared some of the abuse he received last month, publicly shaming the user and declaring: ‘There is abuse, which is fine, but surely there’s a limit.’ Instagram has at least moved to restrict the messages of an account holder who told Aberdeen forward Florian Kamberi: ‘A can’t wait for the day u die.’ The platform — owned by Facebook — promised a new crackdown on unacceptable behaviour just last month. In a statement, a spokesman for Instagram promised: ‘Our rules against hate speech don’t tolerate attacks on people based on their protected characteristics, including race or religion. ‘We strengthened these rules last year, banning more implicit forms of hate speech, like content depicting Blackface and common antisemitic tropes. ‘We take action whenever we become aware of hate speech, and we’re continuously improving our detection tools so we can find it faster. ‘Today, we’re announcing that we’ll take tougher action when we become aware of people breaking our rules in DMs (direct messages). Currently, when someone sends DMs that break our rules, we prohibit that person from sending any more messages for a set period of time. ‘Now, if someone continues to send violating messages, we’ll disable their account. We’ll also disable new accounts created to get around our messaging restrictions and will continue to disable accounts we find that are created purely to send abusive messages.’ Meanwhile, Celtic goalkeeper Conor Hazard has insisted there is a lot more to come from him after signing a new two-year contract with the club. The 22-year-old made his first-team debut earlier this season in Celtic’s 3-2 Europa League win against Lille at Parkhead and was the penalty shoot-out hero as the club claimed a Quadruple Treble with a Scottish Cup triumph over Hearts. The Northern Ireland international has featured seven times as former manager Neil Lennon alternated between summer signing Vasilis Barkas and Scott Bain. Hazard said: ‘There is still a lot more to come. Just playing those seven games has given me a big boost to my confidence and I am going into training every day knowing that there is that opportunity to try to get back in the team, perform and get a few wins. ‘I was over the moon even just to make my debut. The cup final was unbelievable, something I will never forget.’