Matt Maher: High time the sewer of social media abuse is cleaned up
“It’s amazing the amount of uproar that comes into the game when somebody’s pockets are being hurt. It’s a shame it’s not like that when all the things that go wrong with things at the minute, things like racism.”
So said Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford, when asked his views on the European Super League in the aftermath of Monday’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool. How right he is.
Another week brought another incident of a player being abused on social media because of the colour of their skin. This time the victim was Villa and England defender Tyrone Mings, who shared a racist message he had been sent on Instagram during the early hours of Friday morning.
“Another day in the life of social media with no filter,” tweeted Mings. “Please don’t feel sorry for us, just stand side by side in the fight for change. Social media isn’t getting any safer without it.”
Later in the weekend Instagram provided the wholly underwhelming response they had restricted a user from sending messages ‘for a set period of time’.
Perhaps some of the collective energy generated in stopping a breakaway league can now be redirected into pressuring social media companies to do more to tackle discrimination on their platforms?
Earlier this month, Swansea, Birmingham and Rangers all suspended their social channels for a week in protest as what they perceive as a lack of accountability shown by the likes of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
It was action worthy of huge credit, yet the sense remains it will require a unilateral boycott, involving every club and every player and even the media, if real change is to be brought.
Footballers and football clubs have some of the largest followings on social media in the world and losing them from their platforms, even for a short period of time, would surely force these companies to take notice? It is the closest thing, to paraphrase Bamford, to hitting them in the pocket.
Such a move was certainly under discussion prior to the Super League taking over the news agenda. Now that has been dealt with, it needs bringing back to the table.
In an interview with the anti-bullying charity the Cybersmile Foundation, Mings revealed he had been the recipient of abuse ‘hundreds of times’ online. Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara recently claimed he suffers racist abuse on social media every day.
It is everyone’s responsibility to keep calling out these incidents. Enough is enough.
