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England players facing racial abuse online: How can we stop trolls for good?
Mayfield Ngondonga
July 14, 2021
After a month of matches and football fans congregating across Europe, the Euro’s came to a sad end for the Brits after Italy won due to penalties. With the pressure mounting, the players and fans were filled with anxiety and the atmosphere was tense.
After yesterday’s loss things have gotten out of hand with players Bakayo Saka 19, Marcus Rashford 23 and Jadon Sancho 21 receiving an overwhelming amount of abuse from racist trolls via social media. The three young players have been spammed with racist comments and threats that need to be dealt with seriously.
The Football world is known for dealing with numerous racial assaults and bad-mannered fans.
Unfortunately, fans have taken their anger and frustrations that it did not come home to the players who dedicated their lives to the game.
These recent events have raised the question of what can be done to make social media a safer space.
England manager Gareth Southgate spoke out on the abuse the players have been getting and said it’s “unforgivable”. He highlighted an important point. The team brought together different parts of the country and everyone could attest to the sense of togetherness, however after the loss people have thrown that out the window taking us back to where we started.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and The Football Association have also condemned this sort of behaviour in hopes to show their solidarity with the players. At this point it’s not enough to simply condemn racism, we have to take action and be anti-racist and Boris Johnson has been anything but anti- racist . The serious threats and abuse that has occurred across the country should be taken seriously,that includes implementing policies to ensure racism is put to a stop.
Instagram users have taken it upon themselves to get justice and ensure trolls won’t get away with posting harmful comments.
Twitter user Maxine Williams suggested ways in which we can take matters into our own hands and ensure racist trolls face the consequences of their actions.
It’s possible to report comments on Instagram and most social media sites but users have complained Instagrams guidelines simply aren’t strict enough and will often allow racist and abusive comments as it doesn’t breach any of their regulations . The discussion has raised up the topic of freedom of speech and where the lines crosses over to hate speech.
The platform is able to flag posts on Covid to provide users with more information why can this same feature not be used to flag racist and abusive comments?
This begs the question, who is Instagram really protecting?
A petition has been circulating through Instagram to make it a legal requirement for everyone to upload a form of ID before signing up for an account . Children under 18 will be required to use their parent or legal guardians ID. Many of us wonder how people are able to be so cruel online, the answer is simple; a lack of accountability and consequences. Having everyone’s identity verified will help to prevent anonymous activity online as well as ensure everyone is able to be traced and held accountable for their actions.
Here’s what the government responded.
“The Online Safety legislation will address anonymous harmful activity. User ID verification for social media could disproportionately impact vulnerable users and interfere with freedom of expression.”
Click here to sign the petition
England will certainly be feeling the loss of what could have been but perhaps during this time, we need to take a hard look at why racism was the first thing to come out after such a great loss. The government and social media platforms need to do better on cracking down on abuse and showing the public there will be consequences.
The players have inspired thousands of people including children from various backgrounds. The England team has shown that we’re stronger when we’re united and defeated when we are divided. A harsh lesson we have to learn before it comes home.
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