English football institutions agreed, on Saturday, to conduct a “boycott” on social media from 3:00 pm on Friday, April 30th to 11:59 pm on Monday, May 3, in protest against the “continuing discriminatory violations” against the players. And people connected to the world of football are received via networks.
The blackout will be implemented during all days when the men’s and women’s professional football matches are played in the Premier League, the Championship, the First Division, and the Women’s Championship: on the specified dates, clubs and institutions will separate their accounts from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The agreement was reached by the English Football Association (FA), the English Premier League, the Women’s Football Association in the Super League and Women’s Championship, the Professional Football Association (PFA), the League Managers Association (LMA), the Professional Referees Association. England (PGMOL), the Federation of Football Supporters (FSA) and the “Kick it Out” union against racism in British football.
“The boycott shows that English football is uniting to emphasize that social media companies must do more to eliminate online hate, while highlighting the importance in the ongoing fight against discrimination,” the Premier League said, through a joint statement representing all federations.
The aforementioned statement indicates that in February 2021, English football, through a letter, limited its requests for social media companies to try to create ways to quickly filter, block, and remove offensive posts. They also called on organizations to improve the verification process to avoid new registrations.
In addition, he noted that they have asked companies to help law enforcement agencies identify and prosecute the authors of illegal content.
“Although some progress has been made, we are reiterating these requests in an effort to stem the ongoing flow of discriminatory messages and to ensure that there are real consequences for providers of online abuse on all platforms,” the statement said.
“Football boycott measures alone will not, of course, end the scourge of discriminatory online abuse, but they will demonstrate that the game is ready to take voluntary and proactive action in this ongoing battle,” he adds.
In addition, British football organizations have urged the UK government to ensure that robust legislation is introduced into the cyber safety bill to make social media companies more accountable for what happens on their platforms.
Edeline John, Director of International Relations and Corporate Affairs at The Football Association, said it was “unacceptable” that people in English football and society in general experience discriminatory abuse on the Internet on a daily basis “without any real-world consequences. The Authors”.
“This needs to change quickly, and we continue to urge social media companies to act now to fix this problem. We will not stop talking about this problem and we will continue to work with the government to ensure that the Internet Security Act grants adequate regulation of Ofcom’s supervisory authorities. Social media is responsible if it continues to fail to fulfill its moral and social responsibilities to address this endemic problem, ”John added.
Richard Masters, chief executive of the English Premier League, described any kind of racist behavior as “unacceptable” and said that “heinous violations” of players on social media could not be allowed to continue.
Trevor Birch, Executive Director of the League, also spoke, expressing the clubs’ clear commitment to a “unified position” against “reprehensible” racist, discriminatory and threatening violations on social media platforms.
Athletes’ insults on social networks are not limited to English football. In Spain, Real Madrid player Mesa Rodriguez recently received all kinds of chauvinist exclusion after she posted on her personal Twitter account her photo with another picture of Marco Asensio for Madrid, where they were both seen celebrating with the goal of “the same passion”.
Comments such as “Someone wants to stop two balls at the same time” or “Passionate like wanting to include them” led Rodriguez to remove the post. Later on, the whole world of football turned into Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, who supported him with various messages on their social networks to show their solidarity with the kind of movement that English football wants to eliminate in its infancy.
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