Footballers Should Boycott Social Media Over Racist Abuse, Says Phil Neville

21 August 2019, 15:15

The England women's manager says boycotting social media will send a "powerful message" to online trolls.

Phil Neville has called on footballs to "boycott" social media after numerous players have been subject to online abuse.

The England manager stated, "twitter won't do anything about it, Instagram won't do anything about it - they send you an email reply saying they'll investigate but nothing happens.

"I've lost total faith in whoever runs these social media departments, so let's send a powerful message: come off social media for six months. Let's see the effect it has on these social media companies."

Neville continued, "we have to take drastic measures now as a football community. I've had it with my players on social media, the Premier League and the Championship have had it."

His comments come after Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba was subjected to racist abuse online after missing a penalty against Wolves on Monday.

Several of Pogba's Manchester United teammates, as well as the club itself, have spoken out against the abuse.

Both Twitter and Facebook have issued statements condemning the abuse.

Twitter said it has now "permanently suspended a series of accounts for violating our hateful conduct policy".

It added, "we're fully aware of and share the concerns surrounding online racist abuse towards certain footballers in the UK over recent days. We're proactively monitoring the conversation online and will continue taking robust action on any account which violates our rules."

"This is a societal issue and requires a societal response. This is why we maintain a dialogue with both the Professional Footballers' Association and Kick It Out and are committed to working together to address abusive online and racist behaviour across the industry."

Facebook commented, "there is no place for racism or abusive behaviour on Instagram and we invest heavily in developing tools and technologies to prevent bullying and harassment."

"People who repeatedly break our guidelines will be permanently banned from using Instagram."