Players in England want racist social media accounts deleted

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This article was published 04/09/2019 (2585 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON – Soccer players in England are asking social media companies to permanently delete accounts after a single racist post and commit greater resources to identifying abuse.

The Professional Footballers’ Association met with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram after many of its members staged a 24-hour social media boycott in April as part a campaign called “Enough.”

But the opening month of the Premier League season has seen black players subjected to racial abuse, including Marcus Rashford after missing a penalty for Manchester United, and the PFA wants tougher action from the social networks.

The PFA told The Associated Press it wants “sufficient resources dedicated to identifying and removing offending posts without delay.”

Twitter said Wednesday that in the last two weeks it had “taken action on more than 700 examples of abuse and hateful conduct related to UK football.”

That action wasn’t specified and the players want more transparency. The PFA is demanding players are informed “the offending account has been permanently suspended.”

Twitter declined to directly comment on the PFA’s requests.

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