English Soccer Players Met With Racist Messages for Social Media Boycott Over Racism
#ENOUGH
Kim Kyung-Hoon Livepic/Reuters
English soccer players are furious at social media companies for not taking stronger actions to combat online racism on their platforms. On Friday, players in England's Professional Footballers Association (PFA) boycotted Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter in protest of racism directed at athletes during matches and online. But in a statement, the PFA said players received numerous racist messages and abuse on the platforms during their “#Enough” boycott, and that the organization would be continuing to pressure social media companies to remove users who use racist language directed at players and fans. “Yesterday, some members received racist abuse on their #Enough posts. When these incidents were reported, the response from social networks was—again—unacceptable,” the league said. “In the coming days, we will be inviting players to report any racist abuse they have received to us. We will collate it and share it with social platforms to demonstrate the impact of their lack of action.”