ARSENAL have stepped up their efforts in the hunt for a racist who abused forward Bukayo Saka on social media.
The Premier League side contacted X/Twitter bosses at the weekend to demand the post be removed.
And they are now working with data science company Signify to unmask the troll.
The firm uses AI tech to identify abusive social media users.
Last year, 18 Arsenal members were banned as a result of its probes.
Yesterday, London’s Met Police also confirmed officers are investigating the offensive post, but said no arrests had yet been made.
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Saka, 22 — who played in yesterday’s 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa — was subjected to a vile slur by the yob who said he “needs to be humbled before he ruins this sport any further”.
It came after Arsenal’s 2-2 Champions League draw with Bayern Munich last Tuesday in which Saka went down late on and appealed for a penalty.
Some fans believe he tried to con the referee by throwing himself into Bayern’s goalie.
His abuser’s account has now been made private, so it is not known if the offensive post has been deleted or not.
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However, The Sun on Sunday revealed Elon Musk’s platform had refused to remove it after it was reported — insisting it “did not violate safety policies”.
A source at Arsenal said: “Player welfare is our first priority and our full focus is on supporting Bukayo. We have began our own investigation to attempt to identify the abuser and have contacted X.
“We’ll always take strong action to stamp out this abhorrent behaviour.”
Arsenal began working with Signify after Saka and England teammates Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were racially abused for missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final shootout defeat to Italy.
The Sun approached X for comment.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
