Tackling racism on social media

[HighPeakFox]

1 minute ago, STUHILL said:

100s of millions of people certainly won't come together and create a mass boycott of social media either. 

I don't disagree.

[STUHILL]

Just now, HighPeakFox said:

I don't disagree.

Solution? Any ideas? Social media companies have the ability but won't do anything unless have serious pressure applied 

[HighPeakFox]

2 minutes ago, STUHILL said:

Solution? Any ideas? Social media companies have the ability but won't do anything unless have serious pressure applied 

I agreed yours was a nice idea, I'm just wearily sceptical that there's any will for change - too many governments rely on division to get re-elected.

[Foxxed]

Clubs should fund an alternative to Twitter and commit to releasing football news there.

 

Premier League clubs have the money to make it work and they have the content to make it worthwhile.

[wattolcfc]

5 minutes ago, Foxxed said:

Clubs should fund an alternative to Twitter and commit to releasing football news there.

 

Premier League clubs have the money to make it work and they have the content to make it worthwhile.

That’s probably the best and only way that they can end the online hate directed directly at players. The only issue is that the racists will still tweet shit about players on twitter, just not as directly. Why not open it up to all sports too.

The threat may however, be enough to get twitter to do something. The loss of advertising from their platform and moving to a rival would be a big kick in the teeth. Money talks.

Edited 12 July 2021 by wattolcfc

[Foxxed]

1 minute ago, wattolcfc said:

That’s probably the best and only way that they can end the online hate directed directly at players. The only issue is that the racists will still tweet shit about players on twitter, just not as directly.

But the eyes of the players and fans will be elsewhere.

 

If nothing else, it will threaten Twitter into policing their service.

[Lesta Legend]

4 minutes ago, Foxxed said:

Clubs should fund an alternative to Twitter and commit to releasing football news there.

 

Premier League clubs have the money to make it work and they have the content to make it worthwhile.

This isn’t just about football, racism on social media will still exist. 
 

The big social media sites aren’t going anywhere either so clubs will ultimately keep their presence and content on any popular platform. 
 

I’d say restricting content between unverified accounts and verified, have the ability to turn off messages from non verified accounts. That way you’d block a vast majority of the inane cack (if you wanted it that way) but also the social media providers have details of people who hurl horrendous abuse and threats. 
 

It’s not just racism either all forms of discriminatory nonsense spouted.  
 

The likes of Twitter have had long enough to come up with solutions. 

[wattolcfc]

5 minutes ago, Foxxed said:

But the eyes of the players and fans will be elsewhere.

 

If nothing else, it will threaten Twitter into policing their service.

100% I did edit my tweet to reflect that just before you posted this. If advertisers follow the players, then the loss of advertising income will hurt twitter into doing something.

[Corky]

Amazes me how hackers who post racist things don't target huge celebrities to use their accounts but random people from Northern towns.

[Foxxed]

17 minutes ago, Lesta Legend said:

This isn’t just about football, racism on social media will still exist.

Yeah. It won't solve it. But it will help.

[iancognito]

Taking away the anonymity from racists takes the anonymity from people that need to be anonymous. People with certain sexual orientations, political views or jobs will simply stop using social media if they can't be anonymous online. Everyone knows how mental these places go if you offer a controversial viewpoint. If people feel endangered by having their whereabouts or identity compromised they'll simply stay away from them altogether. It'd increase workplace bullying and in some cases could even endanger a life if you cannot be anonymous.

Better still, why don't they just tweak their algorithms? I did a 3 week ban for calling a Chelsea fan "embarrassing" after they made a joke about Vichai's crash. Because calling someone embarrassing is apparently hate speech. Similiarly when anyone mentions the N-word and any other racially-divisive words why don't they just flag it up and delete the post. It already happens with Covid or Vaccinations, there's stickers put up on the posts, so it's not beyond their with and wisdom to do the same for racism, surely?

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

Sadly I just can’t see how you can stop a view - even a vile one. These morons will always find a way of making their idiotic points. 
 

But I’d certainly be up for more serious punishments, such as custodial sentences. But then again most data on crime shows that severity of punishments does not correlate to disincentivising crime.

[Daggers]

59 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

…why should they bear the cost of policing what people say?

Because that is literally their job as laid down in their T&Cs. 

[splinterdream]

10 minutes ago, Daggers said:

Because that is literally their job as laid down in their T&Cs. 

And that is what they do already under there own policy, FB, Twitter, they suspend or ban users breaking their policy, but confirming the identity of every user in the world is a whole different level 

[Blue ROI]

Rashford was making the point earlier about his pride representing England.

 

Dion Dublin was making the point earlier about the abuse he got when he was playing.

 

It's always something that struck me about players like Ian Wright and Micah Richards who are some of the most passionate people I can think of when it comes to supporting England.

 

They must have got plenty of abuse themselves but hasn't affected their attachment to the country. There must be some former players whose harsh experiences of fans must have had an impact with their relationship with England.

[splinterdream]

30 minutes ago, Wasyls Pec Deck said:

Sadly I just can’t see how you can stop a view - even a vile one. These morons will always find a way of making their idiotic points. 
 

But I’d certainly be up for more serious punishments, such as custodial sentences. But then again most data on crime shows that severity of punishments does not correlate to disincentivising crime.

You want to lock somebody up for using whats considered as racist language? 

[Aus Fox]

3 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

You want to lock somebody up for using whats considered as racist language? 

Absolutely, if a person is actively causing harm, fear or distress to another person or community of people they should face serious consequences. and whilst they’re locked up they should be completing a  full education program about the harm of their words and the damage that can be done by online trolls.

[sheffield_fox]

Using abusive language with reference to protected characteristics, such as race, is already a crime. 

 

Custodial sentences are increasingly common for perpetrators who commit these crimes face to face.

 

The main difference with online hate crimes is the anonymity afforded to the perpetrators. The impact on the victims is the same.

 

https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/tougher-hate-crime-sentences-record-levels-0

Edited 12 July 2021 by sheffield_fox

[Nod.E]

It doesn't take anything away from how shocking it is that people choose to create fake accounts and post racist abuse, but it pays to remember it is a minority.

 

One person is too many, I get that. 

 

But I have literally seen people talking about the 'majority' of people in this country being racist isn't acceptable.

 

That simply isn't the case and I don't think getting that wrong and spreading that message is going to help the cause.

 

Let the minority of racists know they are in the minority and that they're idiots. Don't let them think they're part of a growing, accepted majority.

 

I just really think the uproar after every racist social media post only serves to self perpetuate the vitriolic nonsense that is the never ending cycle of social media anger and venting.

 

Report it. Get them banned / criminally punished. Move on.

Edited 12 July 2021 by Nod.E

[sheffield_fox]

If you feel strongly about this issue, please feel free use the templates provided in my original post to send a letter to your MP and/or the club. 

 

You can make your voice heard. 

[danhaw]

Sadly, I don't think this will ever go away and it's not just on social media. Take Serie A as a prime example. Week in week out players are being abused from the stands. It happens so much throughout Europe. 

[Nod.E]

You have to ask yourself what these racist posters want. What is their motive?

 

They want a reaction. And they want to know what they say will get to their target. So obviously, they go the race route.

 

It's a troll problem. Stop giving them what they want. 

 

That said we need to find a means of punishing offenders to nip it in the bud.

[Grebfromgrebland]

7 hours ago, sheffield_fox said:

Enough is enough. It's time for the whole sporting world to take a major stand against social media companies. Twitter, etc are happy to keep reeping advertising revenue on unverfied accounts and paying no tax, whilst doing little to nothing to tackle the abhorrent abuse being disseminated on their platform. As a fan I want to see Leicester City Football Club displaying leadership in tackling this important issue. It affects the players, it affects our friends and neighbours, our children. It affects us all, and there is much more that can and should be done about it.

 

I have written to my MP and to Leicester City Football Club to encourage them to take a serious stance. Other clubs and all MP's should be doing the same. I have posted the letters I have written below for you to read. I would love it you would consider copying them and sending them to your own local MP or LCFC. If you want to change anything I wrote, obviously that is fine. I'm just posting them here to make it easier for others to take meaningful action. Emailing your MP is worthwhile and I know this club pays attention to its supporters.

 

I know supporters of other clubsn also visit this forum. If you would like to use my letter to LCFC as a template to contact a representative of your club, please go ahead.

 

Your MP's email address can be found easily by searching for your post code in this directory; https://members.parliament.uk/members/Commons

 

I emailed my letter to the club to [email protected] 

If there's a better place to send it to, please let me know and I will edit this post with the updated email address.

 

If i've got anything majorly wrong, please let me know, but I don't personally want to get into a debate about this on here. If you feel differently to me, that's fine but i'm not going to argue about it.

 

Below are the letters I sent to the club and my MP, with the names redacted. If you do email your MP, remember to include your full address

 

 ------------------

 

Dear [MP's name],

 

As a local constituent of ------, I am writing to you to register my concern about the lack of action by social media companies to tackle online abuse. Like many, I have been horrified by the continuing abuse of young, black footballers on platforms such as twitter. This abuse causes an intolerable impact on the players themselves, as well as other people who are exposed to it, including children. My concern also extends to other forms of abuse including, but not limited to - transphobia, homophobia and sexism.

 

I feel that not enough is being done by the government or by social media companies to tackle this epidemic.

 

I think that users of social media should be asked to verify their identity with ID. This is common on many other online apps including betting apps and the NHS app. It would allow better policing of abusive content. There are many ways of addressing this problem proactively and they must be implemented as soon as possible. Current measures are not nearly sufficient.

 

Social media companies are able to reap advertising revenue from all accounts on their platforms. Until their revenue is limited, by law, to only accounts which are verified by ID, the companies have a huge financial incentive not to address this problem seriously.

 

I hope you and many of your peers feel the same as me about this important issue. I would like to hear it addressed again in parliament. It is time for action.

 

Kind regards,

 

[Name]

[Full postal address]

 

---------------

 

Hi,

 

As a long-time supporter of Leicester city football club, I am writing to you to encourage the club to do more to tackle the online racist abuse of players and supporters. I have been impressed by the efforts of the club over recent years including the 'no room for racism' campaign and the social media boycott.

 

However, I feel that, as one of the leading football clubs in the country, there is much more that can be done by LCFC to take a lead in tackling this issue, for the benefit of all.

 

I question whether the club, in good faith, can continue to support platforms such as Twitter with their business? We are all aware of some of the disgusting abuse which takes place on these platforms; yet the companies continue to profit from advertised revenue on unverified accounts. I don't believe that this will change to a meaningful extent until the government changes the law and forces social media companies to verify all their users with ID, like the NHS app.

 

Certainly, this is an issue for politicians and I have written to my local MP about it, however, football clubs can take a major role in addressing this issue. 

 

The continuing presence of the club and its players on these platforms gives passionate fans little option but to also continue using them. I would like Leicester City Football Club and its players withdraw completely from external social media channels. The club and players have many of their own channels to communicate with fans and I think the most powerful action you could take with your external social media channels would be to stop using them. This would attract international media attention and send a powerful message about the club's stance on this issue.

 

The club has the capacity to put tremendous pressure on other clubs to do the same thing. Which in turn would put pressure on the EFL and FA, who carry serious lobbying pressure with the government.

 

Leicester City Football Club consistently make me proud to be a fan, both on and off the pitch. I believe the majority of your fanbase would love to see their club take a global lead, once again, on this important issue.

 

Thank you for your time. 

 

Kind regards,

 

[Name]

This is pointless.

 

When you have a racist government and press nothing will change.

 

The right wing media know that they can control government policy and who is in government if they appeal to a core of the country that they keep angry, xenophobic and uninformed.  These are the owners of the sun, telegraph, daily mail, express.

 

They keep the country racist and the UK government will dare not deviate from that agenda otherwise they will lose power.

 

Until we get rid of the right wing media and the Tory party we're stuck with racism and nothing we do will change that.

 

 

[splinterdream]

15 minutes ago, Aus Fox said:

Absolutely, if a person is actively causing harm, fear or distress to another person or community of people they should face serious consequences. and whilst they’re locked up they should be completing a  full education program about the harm of their words and the damage that can be done by online trolls.

I'm afraid I disagree, inciting violence is of course another level but you can't lock somebody up for using language that hurts people's feelings. Are you going to lock the many black people up that used language deemed to be racist whilst being abusive to John Barnes and Michah Richards? Is it okay for certain groups to use language, but others not, are we to bring in a blasphemy law? 

People need to be free to express their views irrelevant of how abhorrent we find them, then we can deal with it when they're out in the open, otherwise it goes underground and that makes it worse, history has shown us that. 

[Nod.E]

4 hours ago, bovril said:

Because a lot of these people are deliberately looking for a reason to create conflict and division

There's a conspiracy theory in there somewhere. Who'd profit from creating conflict and division?

 

It begins with T and rhymes with stories.