1. Racist/discriminatory messages/posts should be filtered/blocked before they are received
2. Operate robust/transparent/swift measures to take down abusive material if it does get into circulation
3. Users subject to verification that allows for accurate ID of person behind the account. Steps taken to stop a user that has sent abuse from re-registering
4. Our platforms should actively assist investigating authorities in identifying the originators of discriminatory posts
The club is completed correct in demanding social media companies do more.
Clubs are unable to do much if an abuser is not a member.
Last year saw a video of an Arsenal fan racially abusing Tottenham’s Son Heung-Min go viral.
Arsenal investigated the individual only to find that he was not even a red member, meaning that they could not suspend his membership.
Clubs hands are tied if people do not have memberships. They then need to rely on the police and courts to act, handing out convictions and Football Banning Orders. But at the moment the police have a lot more important things to investigate such as the increase in stabbings in London.
Arsenal’s CEO Vinai Venkatesham summed up the lack of action by social media perfectly:
“How do you explain to a black footballer that a piece of pirated content is taken down within minutes, but that’s not the same for racist abuse?”
And he is spot on.
Stick up a video of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring a goal, it will be taken down in seconds and you will probably end up suspended.
Abuse someone – whether it is racial, sexist, homophobic or anything – and often the social media companies come back after 2 weeks with “we saw nothing wrong” and leave the message up, allowing the abuser to continue.
It is a case of mixing up their priorities.
They are protecting revenues by taking down copywrited videos. But also not banning abusers is protecting revenues.
These social media companies rely on Daily Active User (DAU) figures to present to advertisers. Those advertisers then pay the social media companies depending on how many DAUs they have.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc have been nearly impossible to monetise.
They relied on selling data but this revenue has closed since the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the introduction of GDPR.
In 2020, Twitter’s net loss was $1.14 billion.
If they start banning users, they will see advertising revenues drop as a result.
It is just not in the interest for social media companies to ban users. It affects revenue streams, which in turn affects profit and ultimately their share price.
One huge problem is that many Twitter users are two-faced.
We see many people preaching “be kind” or “stop the abuse” but then sit there day in day out abusing people.
How can someone sit their demanding people stop the abuse when they have spent half a decade contributing a hate campaign towards Arsene Wenger, Mesut Oil, Granit Xhaka or Mikel Arteta?
I have had people threaten to slit my throat, to silence me forever or attack me when I least expect it. I have thick skin, but others do not.
The person you abuse might not be the person that ends up harming themselves, or worse. But the blood is still on your hands. You contribute to the toxicity of social media.
By abusing footballers, hate campaigns against Arteta or Ozil. Abusing a footballer because he misses a chance. You are part of the problem.
We all need to do better.
But please, do not preach to me about “Be Kind” when you spend every day preaching abuse. Look at yourself and your own behaviour first.
My hope is if social media giants do not act, Arsenal will instruct all their players to close their social media accounts. And then other clubs follow.
Arsenal could do more themselves by blocking those that abuse, and instructing players to also block those accounts. Although it will only be limited as many of the abusers have “burner accounts” designed to abuse and then be blocked.
If fans can not behave when interacting with footballers, then remove the chance for them to interact.
But the problem is bigger than the way fans interact with footballers. It is about how we interact with each other.
For a long time I have pointed out that racism in football was no longer a middle aged, white, balding Englishman hurling abuse to black players from the terraces. That the abuse had moved online.
That to label abuse an “English problem” was wrong. That just because it was players in England being abused, it did not mean that the abusers came from England
My take was that when I scrolled through the abuse, much of it came from fans living abroad. And that abuse which did come from these shores was from children and teenagers who thought it was “banter” and would soon learn it was not.
Many of those who have racially abused footballers in England have been arrested over the years. Their stories (where they were of age) making national press. Yet the authorities were always powerless to stop someone from India, Nigeria or Saudi Arabia abusing a footballer.
The Indian actress that racially abused Alex Iwobi summed the sad situation up.
It fell into “more racist abuse in English football” but it ignored where the abuser came from. The fact she escaped punishment showed that English authorities had little to know power against those living abroad.
A football club, The FA or The Premier League can not ban someone who lives abroad and has no intention of going to the game. The police are unable to do anything as the abuser is not living under English law.
They can not stop a man from Nigeria tweeting abuse, or an actress from India putting something on her Instagram or Snapchat.
Social media shows that many places across the globe are less developed mentally than the likes of the UK. Countries where discrimination is the norm, even enshrined in law.
I have been labelled all sorts over the years for pointing out that much of the racist abuse towards footballers comes from India, from Nigeria, and from many other countries that still maintain backwards views and are simply not as tolerant as the UK.
Thierry Henry recently quit social media in an attempt to highlight the abuse on platforms.
Henry’s statement is spot on.
Social media is now filled with accounts that abuse people daily. There only goal is to bring others down. Or to say something so controversial it makes them “famous”.
And it is not just racial abuse. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are cesspits where homophobia, sexism, transphobia and anti-Semitism is rife.
When Henry says social media is “too toxic to ignore” he is spot on.
For those who follow me on Twitter will know, I left it at the back end of last year.
It had become tiresome dealing with those who like to spread their toxicity.
Last year I had someone email my work pretending to be a “neighbour” of mine claiming that I had racially abused them in the street. They used an anonymous Email account and when invited to my office to discuss the matter further with my MD, they failed to respond,
In 2019 I had someone write a letter to my employer with a picture she had doctored demanding they sack me for “racism”. It took my work 5 minutes of going through her timeline to realise she spends all day abusing people that have a different view to her own and continually abuses female journalists in football.
In 2018 I had someone calling me up at my place of work over 10 times one afternoon abusing me. Abuse is not a new thing.
Back in 2016, I have had someone go onto Google images and take pictures of my work place and then Tweeting them to me with threats. “I will see you when you least expect it” they said. This person now spends all day abusing Mikel Arteta on Twitter for clout.
Last year I had someone circulate my name, address, place of work and pictures of me on social media. All an attempt to encourage people to find me or write to my employer.
I am thick skinned guy and have always called out the bullies. I have lost count the amount of times I have said to someone “you know my name, where I live, work and rink. Do something”. And none have.
Because you see, these online bullies. Those that racially abuse footballers on Twitter. Those that threaten to find people. They are the cowards.
They hide behind their anonymous accounts, or sit in a foreign country, tweeting their abuse. They know that little can be done about their actions.
But as Henry said, something can be done. And it is up to the social media platforms to act.
But will they ban the abusers? The racists? The homophobes? Or are they scared that their business model is bult around how many Daily Active Users they have?
They start banning people, they lose advertising revenue. And that is why they do not act.
It is time for the media to recognise that racism in English football is not an English problem. That it is a social media problem.
Until social media act, then people from around the globe will continue to abuse others.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 