Phil SumblerAnother weekend passes and yet again people are reading news this morning of footballers being abused on social media – it is a growing problem in the game that we all love and yet it still seems to keep on happening.
Last night saw Wales beat Mexico 1-0 at the Cardiff City Stadium in a friendly that was probably poorly sandwiched between two key World Cup qualifiers but also gave a chance to some of our fringe players to get some valuable experience on the international stage.
However, this morning we wake to the news that two of them suffered racial abuse online from people purporting (you assume) to be fans of club, country or even the game themselves although quite clearly none of those three things can be true or it wouldn’t have happened.
It has been a problem for some time but it is a problem that now seems to be escalating and comes just a few weeks of course after the racial abuse received by Yan Dhanda online by “fans” of Manchester City.
Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Reece James have also been on the receiving end in the recent future and yet it still remains possible to create anonymous accounts on all these platforms and all the companies seem able to respond by is “deleting” the accounts in question and rarely – if ever? – do you see someone being successfully prosecuted for something that happens on one of these forums.
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: “We don’t want racist abuse on Instagram and have removed the accounts that sent these messages to Ben Cabango and Rabbi Matondo this weekend.
“We have built tools that mean public figures don’t ever have to receive DMs [direct messages] from people they don’t follow and we recently announced that we’ll take tougher action when we become aware of people breaking our rules in DMs.
“This work is ongoing and we are committed to doing more. We also know these problems are bigger than us, so are working with the industry, government and others to collectively drive societal change through action and education.”
A Swansea club statement read “Swansea City is disgusted by racist abuse received by Ben Cabango via social media following Wales’ friendly fixture against Mexico.
“Once again, we call on social media companies to take responsibility and introduce more stringent safeguards and punishments in order to eradicate such appalling conduct on their platforms.
“Swansea City condemns racism and abuse of all kinds because it has no place within football and wider society.”
Whilst the FAW added “The FAW are in dialogue with South Wales Police to ensure this kind of abhorrent behaviour is reported and investigated.
“The FAW joins other national associations and clubs in urging social media platforms and regulatory authorities to take stronger, more effective and urgent action against this desperate behaviour.”
Rabbi himself took to Twitter to show exactly what was posted with the words
“And it continues… another week of Instagram doing absolutely nothing about racial abuse, my Instagram will get taken down if I post any clips from my games though… priorities.”
I have elected not to reproduce his tweet here due to the nature of the abuse that was directed at him and feel that people should be able to make the choice if they want to read it.
It is clear to everyone that much more needs to be done to kill this problem and the actions lie firmly with the social media companies themselves because until they step up to the plate and make significant changes on their platforms then they will remain an area where the brainless idiots who think this is acceptable will carry on.
Another sad day for football.
One solution might be for social media to source every post or comment back to an identifiable individual or address. Most online abuse comes under assumed names, often associated with a like-minded group in which individuals compete in a race to racist pits.