Messi joins boycott as Facebook fail again
LIONEL MESSI last night threw his weight behind British football’s social media boycott and urged the major platforms to take immediate action against perpetrators of online abuse.
It comes as Facebook, who own I nstagram, were once again accused of turning a blind eye to discrimination after it emerged the social media giant refused to act on a report of racism from a Premier League club.
Football united this weekend in a blackout of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that included clubs and players from the Premier League and Football League, as well as FIFA, UEFA and broadcasters BT Sport and Sky Sports, in a bid to put pressure on the social media companies to do more to stop the rising tide of abuse.
The Mail on Sunday has been told that a Premier League club last week reported to Facebook, via a company who help them monitor their social media channels for abuse, that one of their players had been targeted, including being sent a series of monkey emojis.
The club were told it did not breach Facebook’s community rules. Only when they asked the Premier League to report it again on their behalf did Facebook remove the emojis. The offending account no longer exists. The club have asked Facebook why they did not take action initially but they are yet to hear a response.
Barcelona star Mess ii st he seventh-most followed person on Instagram in the world and last night urged his 200 million followers to demand social media companies take action.
‘I believe the moment has arrived for us to realise that there is a flesh and blood person behind every profile, someone who laughs, cries, enjoys, suffers, human beings with feelings.
‘Nobody deserves to be ill-treated or insulted. We see and experience increasingly worse abuse on social media and nobody is doing anything to prevent it.
‘We should condemn this hostility in the strongest possible terms and demand that the social media networks take urgent measures against this behaviour.’
Messi paid credit to English football for starting the movement and added: ‘I would like the 200 million people that accompany me online to become 200 million reasons to make social media a safe place of respect where we can share what we want to without fear of being insulted, or have to face racism, abuse and discrimination.’
Growing pressure has forced Facebook to act. Following talks with players, they are introducing a tool that filters any direct message requests on Instagram that contain offensive words, phrases and emojis. They also plan to make it harder for someone a player has blocked from contacting them again through a new account.
A Facebook spokesperson told The Mail on Sunday: ‘No one should have to experience abuse anywhere, and it’s against our policies to harass or discriminate against people on Instagram or Facebook. We have already made progress on many of the players’ suggestions, including taking tougher action against people breaking our rules in DMs [direct messages].
‘Starting next week, we’ll provide new tools to help prevent people seeing abusive messages from strangers. We continue to work with UK police on hate speech, and respond to valid legal requests for information, which can be essential for investigations.
‘We’ll continue listening to feedback and keep fighting hate and racism on our platform.’