UK wants tech firms to act on abuse

LONDON • Online racial abuse directed at football players has reached a "crisis point" and social media platforms must join forces with the authorities to tackle the problem more quickly, Britain's Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston said.

A host of players at Premier League clubs have been targeted in the past few months, including Manchester United's Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, Willian of Arsenal, Liverpool's Trent-Alexander Arnold and Sadio Mane, and Reece James of Chelsea.

On Thursday, Mr Huddleston, along with current and former players and representatives of English football's governing bodies, took part in a virtual meeting with social media companies to discuss the problem.

"Racism plaguing players on social media has reached a crisis point," he wrote on Twitter after the meeting, adding that he had urged technology platforms and football authorities to join forces to create "real change".

"Government is playing its part. This year, we're introducing new laws to tackle abuse but there's no reason why there shouldn't be immediate action from tech firms before that to bring about quicker solutions to this abhorrent behaviour."

Last month, former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry deleted his social media accounts to protest against platforms for not taking action against anonymous account holders who are guilty of racism and bullying online.

Scottish champions Rangers and English Championship side Swansea were among the teams this month to announce a week-long boycott of social media.

In February, Instagram said it remained committed in the fight against racism and announced a series of measures, while Twitter vowed to continue its efforts after taking action on more than 700 cases of abuse related to football in Britain in 2019.

Instagram also told Sky News earlier this week that the platform had come up with a new filtering tool it hopes will combat online abuse.

Cases of abuse related to football in Britain in 2019.

Together with anti-discrimination charities, it has developed a predefined list of offensive terms and emojis, and if a direct message contains abusive content, it will be filtered, ensuring that the recipient does not see it.

REUTERS