MANCHESTER UNITED’S players have received a sickening 3,300 incidents of social media abuse since September 2019 – the majority of them racist.
The astonishing figure has highlighted the rise in social media abuse of their stars, up 350 per cent in that time scale.
In a wide ranging investigation set out by the club they found that 86 per cent of these posts were racist, while eight per cent were homophobic or transphobic.
It peaked in January 2021 with over 400 abusive player posts recorded.
The disgusting racist posts contained either the ‘N word’ (and variants on the spelling) or emojis used with racist intent.
United are joining a worldwide social media boycott by sports stars and organisations from 3pm today until 23.59pm on Monday in response to the sustained attacks.
The club monitored Players of the men’s and women’s first team and academy in that period from September 2019 to February of this year.
Manchester United’s Group Managing Director Richard Arnold said: “We have been actively campaigning against discrimination for some time through our All Red All Equal initiative.
“The level of support we have received for this work from our fans has been hugely encouraging but these figures show that despite that, the level of abuse our players and fans receive is on the up.
“It must be said that while these numbers are shocking, they do only represent a 0.01 per cent of conversations that take place on social media about the club and the players.
“By taking part in this boycott this weekend, we, alongside the rest of English football, want to shine a light on the issue.
“It will generate debate and discussion and will raise awareness of the levels of abuse our players and our fans receive.”
United also monitored abuse of their own fans noting a sharp rise in user-to-use attack from the summer of 2020 with 43 per cent of these posts racist while 7 per cent were homophobic or transphobic.
United have also taken action against six of their own fans for abusing Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son on social media following their match with Spurs on 11 April.
They have suspended three season ticket holders, two official members and one who was on the season ticket waiting list.
The Sun is standing united with English football this weekend in response to the ongoing discriminatory abuse of players on social media.
All of our Twitter accounts including Sport, Football, TV and Showbiz will stop posting from 3pm, Friday 30th April until 11.59pm, Monday 3rd May.
Social media boycott receives major corporate backing from McDonald’s
THE social media boycott led by English football has received major corporate backing after McDonald’s became the biggest company to throw their weight behind the project.
Clubs, players and staff of all men’s and women’s teams across the country will down tools on their work on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at 3pm today as they protest against the lack of action the tech giants take to stop abuse and discrimination.
A string of sponsors and other sports have joined in, including in Formula One where Lewis Hamilton has vowed to follow suit this weekend.
And now McDonald’s – one of the biggest commercial market players in the UK – have decided they too will cease all activity on social media until the end of Monday.
That includes all marketing messages they would normally send out, and their decision to join the fold will only add weight to the growing pressure on the platforms to actually make changes instead of just talking.
McDonald’s are the longest-running commercial sponsors working with the FA in England and felt they could not stand by and watch the abuse continue without making a stand.
A McDonald’s Spokesperson said: “As a long-standing partner of The FA, we join this collective stand against online abuse and discrimination.
“McDonald’s UK is deeply committed to inclusive and respectful environments, which is why we have worked closely with our social media platform partners over the last year to stop online abuse and discrimination.”
All the company’s main accounts and grassroots Fun Football channels on all social media platforms will pause from 3pm on Friday until 11:59pm on Monday, responding only to customer services enquiries.
A Facebook spokesperson said: “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 agree with and have already made progress on many of the players’ suggestions, including taking tougher action against people breaking our rules in DMs.
“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.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
