Thierry Henry leads takes on social media abuse as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram turn blind eye

“I just think that it is not a safe place at the minute,” Thierry Henry said of social media in an interview with Good Morning Britain this week. The former France international ditched social media last week, deleting his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts over attacks that were “too toxic to ignore”. Henry is the most high-profile figure in football to take a stand against the faceless keyboard warriors that spit bile online. “People are getting racially abused but, when you see the statement, I talk also about bullying and harassment that can cause mental issues,” Henry said. “People commit suicide because of it.” #ThierryHenry announced he is stepping away from social media until they start taking racism seriously. 👏 "I will be removing myself until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity as they do for copyright infringements” pic.twitter.com/YwF36eLVP2 — FIFPRO (@FIFPro) March 29, 2021 “It’s very difficult to eradicate everything, but can it be safer? “We all know that it is a great tool but a lot of people are using it as a weapon. Why? Because they can hide behind fake accounts. Antisocial media: Manchester United players Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford would benefit from avoiding online idiots “I know that a little portion of the world are using it as a weapon. Can it be safer? That’s all I am asking. I will be back on it, when it’s safe.” It can be safer. It can quite easily be made safer by the social media companies themselves, namely Twitter and Facebook (which also owns Instagram). Appeals to the companies – such as the English Premier League asking them to show some “basic human decency” – have fallen on deaf ears. The abuse of footballers on social media is just an example of the hate that spreads on these platforms. We want assurance from Twitter and Facebook that online hate will continue to be taken seriously.We've co-signed this open letter 👇🏽 https://t.co/6U4XU8hh2T — Kick It Out (@kickitout) February 11, 2021 Henry pointed out the power held by Facebook and Twitter in filtering out content, and they do so when it comes to copyright infringement. “I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright,” he wrote in his final post to his combined 14.8 million followers across the three platforms. Posts with illicit streams for the English Premier League, Serie A and La Liga disappear within seconds but racism goes on unabated. Football clubs specialise in social media own goals and Chinese Super League sides are in a class of their own As is the nature of the modern game and social media, this is a global problem. One racist abuser, whose vitriol was disclosed online by Crystal Palace player Patrick Van Aanholt after a late miss against Manchester United, appeared to come from someone in Asia. The user’s profile photo appeared to show a view of Hong Kong’s skyline among other indicators. Marcus Rashford is the latest footballer to say he's receive racist abuse on social media.This 𝙝𝙖𝙨 to stop.@IanWright0 @jjenas8 @GaryLineker #MOTD pic.twitter.com/LTIS09ajak — Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) January 30, 2021 Other posts from the now-deleted account showed racial abuse to English Premier League players dating back as far as 2018 and later to Chinese Super League, A-League and J. League players. These ad hominem attacks inextricably linked to lost bets. That is not to blame European football’s cosy symbiosis with the gambling companies that are official partners of most leagues and clubs, merely an indicator of how truly global the global game has become and how hard in turn it is to police that. Well, it would not be hard if the social media companies took a stand and deactivated racist and abusive accounts – and that’s without having to move to China’s favoured real name registration method. In their absence it has been left to the players themselves. English football chiefs tell Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey to act on racism – ‘your platforms remain havens for abuse’ It’s ludicrous that it falls on the abused to end this. If it was important to big tech’s bottom line and the pockets of Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, then it would be gone in mere seconds. It would be the same if those affected had the weight behind them of the rights holders and the billions that change hands to show these players across the world. But no. Perhaps Henry can do what he did in his playing days and inspire the generations behind him. Marcus Rashford has said he think it's the responsibility of social media companies to stop online racial abuse.Read more here: https://t.co/37ydkMafD3 pic.twitter.com/1vVMOdZ2bA — Sky News (@SkyNews) February 12, 2021 “Something needs to happen,” Gareth Bale said after two of his Wales teammates were racially abused. “I think if everyone came together and decided to boycott social media, to make a statement [I would]. “If everybody did it at once, not just one or two people, and if we did a campaign with a lot of big influential people in sport and other forms of life came off social media to make a statement, then yeah, I think it could help. If that was the case, I would be all for that.” England’s Declan Rice shared Bale’s sentiment. “Something definitely has to be done,” Rice said. “There has been way too much in the last year especially with social media abuse.” World Cup Qatar 2022 and Bahrain F1 get political as sport answers back He said England players had no plans to boycott social media but may discuss it in the future. Several of the Three Lions squad have been on the receiving end of the worst antisocial media has to offer. Football is not alone in this. All sports have their share of social media abusers as has wider society in this current climate There is no place for it anywhere but fair play to Henry for taking a stand with regard to football. He was never renowned for his ability to tackle as a player but he’s tackling this problem better than those who should. The adage that “sport does not build character, it shows it” seems more true every passing week as athletes take the lead on and off the pitch.