Morning all.
The Premier League, FA, EFL, WSL, Women’s Championship, PFA, LMA, PGMOL and Kick It Out have all co-signed the letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerburg, asking them “for reasons of basic human decency” to use the power of their systems to end the abuse. – Sky Sports.
We live in a cruel and nasty world. I’ve always maintained that here on HH, it’s ok to criticise, it’s ok to have a feisty debate too but as soon as things become personal or abusive then this isn’t the place to be. Race, religion, or any other topic which if by adding ‘ist, ism, or phobic’ makes a comment unlawful, again, not here. Soon I hope it’s not anywhere.
Marcus Rashford, Axel Tuanzebe, Anthony Martial and Lauren James are among those who have been the targets of social media abuse, along with West Brom’s Romaine Sawyers and Chelsea defender Reece James, Lauren James’ brother. Mikel Arteta and Steve Bruce too.
Social media is great but it’s like VAR, it’s not being run properly. Vile comments are being allowed, many of which are unlawful and very little is being done about it.
I detest Mike Riley in his capacity of head of the PGMOL but as a person, I’ve no idea what he’s like. He might be a really nice guy. Same with Mike Dean, although to be fair, as a referee, I don’t think he’s been too bad for Arsenal of late. However, he royally cocked up in his last fixture and afterwards an onslaught of abuse headed his way, including death threats made towards he and his family. Mikel Arteta and Steve Bruce have also been on the receiving end of some really nasty stuff.
At what stage does any person of sound mind think that is acceptable? Why on earth would someone even think to make such a threat in the first place? I suppose if I knew the answer, I’d be as bad as whoever does this kind of thing.
Marcus Rashford. I don’t like him as a footballer because I think he’s one of those players who looks for a penalty and I still blame him for the injury to Rob Holding but I couldn’t give a toss that his skin colour is different to mine. We all bleed red when cut. I think it was after Utd’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal that his own fans took to social media to express their feelings about how badly he’d played. Of course, the colour of his skin suddenly became relevant, yet it isn’t. Regardless of all the good he’s done lately here in the UK, he’s a human being and in this case, a victim too.
Football authorities request to Facebook and Twitter:
- Messages and posts should be filtered and blocked before being sent or posted if they contain racist or discriminatory material
- You should operate robust, transparent, and swift measures to take down abusive material if it does get into circulation.
- All users should be subject to an improved verification process that (only if required by law enforcement) allows for accurate identification of the person behind the account. Steps should also be taken to stop a user that has sent abuse previously from re-registering an account.
- Our platforms should actively and expeditiously assist the investigating authorities in identifying the originators of illegal discriminatory material.
Administrating such large social media platforms can’t be easy but that’s no excuse in my opinion. They can set filters, certain words could be banned, or certainly send a comment into a different folder where moderators could view them. From there, IP addresses can be recorded and sent to whoever might request them for investigation. What the world needs is a few prosecutions where hefty sentences are handed out by the courts. There needs to be a deterrent.
When asked about his personal experiences with online abuse, Mikel Arteta said:
I prefer not to, we are all exposed in this industry. It would affect me a lot more the moment someone wants to touch my family, because it happened. The club was aware of it and tried to do something about it. It’s not going to stop tomorrow, we know that, we want to do something medium or long term. It’s part of the job, I am not the only one suffering this type of thing.
Just because these guys are well known in footballer it doesn’t make this issue more important. Unlawful abuse towards another on social media isn’t just unacceptable because it’s been directed at people in the public eye, it’s unacceptable, period.
I disagree with Mikel Arteta, it’s not ‘part of the job’.
See you in the comments.
Bonjour Rico and everyone
It never is part of ANY job. And I dont think that in 2021 we should be discussing such issues. Yet here we are, discussing it because some morons are not even fit to be called human beings let alone civilized persons.
The trouble, as you pointed out quite well Rico, lies in the persons operating social media. Social media itself does a lot of good……I work with children with difficult backgrounds and believe me, sometimes social media is important to them as it helps them much more get out of their shell and seek help.
However, here we have the power to prosecute once we are on racial abuse, online bullying and also hate speech. Recently, 7 persons were taken to court because of hate speech against a policeman who simply was doing his duty. They got fined and also given a suspended sentence. Plus 50 hours of community work. And a few weeks ago we had to prosecute a teenager of 13 years for online bullying. He has to attend weekly counseling sessions for three months…..obviously his parents pay for them.
The problem with this situation is that the laws are not up to standard with online abuse whatever form it may take. We are still operating on laws of 10-15 years ago when the world was a different place. Thankfully, here it is being studied and updated and soon it will be made into law.
Rico , feel free to delete this if you feel that it’s too political for what is a football forum.
China , Myanmar , Trump , Personal abuse , much of it is distasteful but whose job is it to police it ?
In the case of the first two , it’s state governments that have taken their populations by force . The third is also political but by an individual that supports an opposite view and just happens to control the system , and the fourth by a multinational company that gets it’s money from advertising to the very people most sane people would like to stop.
As the last company is actually owned by the same person that shut down Trump does that make him the supreme arbiter ?
Suppression is just as dangerous as the views themselves if not more so , free speech is in danger with the vocal minorities setting the trend to shout loudest and change things in the past and present to the way that they would like things to be .
If you bring in a law to suppress the abuse and give away powers to enable companies to enact this, what else will be caught up in the sideswipe . ?
In the case of Zuckerberg ,perhaps he should be held to account and where he recieves complaints about abuse . The information on those that are posting it should be made to be sent to a “” Policing panel “” to follow up because if we just see suppression as in the first three cases that cannot be right in a free world.
I see that China has banned the BBC World Service from reporting from its country because it accuses the BBC of broadcasting ‘fake news’ or in other words the left cancelling the left.
China also has strict controls over Facebook, Twitter and the other big social media platforms, so you do have to wonder if whatever we might think or are made to think by our media about the Chinese if they actually know something about Big Tech that we aren’t allowed to know?
This is a very awkward subject. hope I say this correct.
I agree that you should not make threats against some one’s family for what they say.
But at the same time the presenters and guest on radio or tv shows or sports people in general when giving an interviews or on face book etc need to take responsibility for what they deliberately say when they know it will bring a very angry response.
Morning guys. I sat on this for a couple of days as I didn’t know whether to bring the topic up but I think we agree, something needs doing. How or what is the next step for someone to decide.
But as individuals, we can all do our bit, although I strongly suspect that we on here already do.
On another subject given the amount of contentios decisions in the Leicester – Liverpool match I reckon thast they should hand the title to VAR and have the ceremony at Stockley Park.
The thing I love about soccer is that we can see; some of the most talented player from all over the world on the filed at one time, no matter what colour or religion the player is and just appreciate their skill’s except the one’s that fall over their own shadow that is.
Next thing to fix is the fighting between fans before and after the match and lets make it safe for families to attend
Not just Arsenal who suffer from VAR errors then.
At least England are beating Italy with the oval ball.
Anything over 350 and England are going to have a right job on a wicket that is taking spin on day one, India certainly hold the nap hand after winning the toss.
City tearing Totts a new one
Not sure what I loved more… the look on Klopp’s face or Maureen’s at full time! Watching Pool in freefall has been brilliant!!
Excellent post, Rico. Totally agree 👏
Thanks Sue.
New post up now
Where’s this new post Rico? Not on my PC, tablet or phone.
https://highbury-house.com/2021/02/14/leeds-have-a-weakness-arsenal-need-to-exploit-it/
Here you go Cicero.