Isn’t it time social media was brought under control - dreadful abuse after England football defeat.

I saw this diagram of where the racist social media posts came from…

Yes! People need to understand that all actions have consequences. If you want the right or freedom to say 'it' (whatever 'it' is at a particular moment in time) in a public forum then be prepared to deal with the consequences. The other side of freedom is responsibility.

If abuse is coming from other countries then the only way to stop it is through the social media companies who control the platforms banning or suspending those accounts. To take legal action each country would need it’s own laws.

Saetana

I need to point one thing out re the racist abuse sufffered by some of the England players. Gareth Southgate himself said most (not all) of this racist abuse is coming from other countries (as was the case before the Euros even started). Lets not jump to conclusions about most English football fans being racist please.

I caught a short report on Newsnight yesterday about a tech company which has identified over 100 accounts from which much of the vile abuse originated. Their representative said that this was just a snapshot of what has happened, but the majority of accounts were from outside the UK. This doesn’t seem to be getting much publicity, so I can’t give a link. I find it heartening and scary at the same time, as the implication was that much of it was orchestrated by hostile states.

Just spotted split infinitive in my last post. Slap on the knuckles. I should have written to post anonymously. GN grammar sticklers forgive me!

Lots of people remain anonymous on social media for very good reason. MN has over the years supported hundreds of women experiencing domestic violence, they would not have been able to receive the support without anonymity.

You are not supposed to but I use a different name on Twitter just as we do on here. That’s not because I want to anonymously post vile obnoxious hate remarks but because I don’t want any lunatics out there (GN excepted) knowing who I am, which would be easy to work out, and then being able to trace my address.

I think a white footballer missing a penalty would also have received abuse messages from those sick ignorant people full of anger and hate. This became escalated into full on racism because the three lads were black. All abuse needs to be stopped. The perpetrators must be found and shown society will not accept their vile behaviour. Zero tolerance for any kind of abuse.

Be interesting to see if this Onlines Harms Bill overseen by Ofcom is workable in view of some of the comments on here.

I don’t think anyone says “most” fans are racist but there are enough.

Those who defaced the Rashford mural were not “abroad”

I need to point one thing out re the racist abuse sufffered by some of the England players. Gareth Southgate himself said most (not all) of this racist abuse is coming from other countries (as was the case before the Euros even started). Lets not jump to conclusions about most English football fans being racist please.

I'd love to know how social media sites are supposed to do this - currently they work with a system of algorithms and user reporting to clamp down on obnoxious posts. Facebook, just to take one example, has literally billions of users - obviously they cannot manually check every single post for abuse. If anyone has any practical suggestions then, by all means, spit them out. The social media sites have a difficult job trying to keep the fine balance between free speech and abuse. I do think that anonymity on social media sites needs to end - I am on Facebook with my real name and details, Twitter is extremely easy to set up an anonymous account with. That is the only thing I can think of to help ameliorate the deluge of offensive posts online - make people use their real details and make them responsible for what they post.

One way to stop a lot of vitriol is to take away anonymity. If everyone were able to see who posted what, people would keep a lot more to themselves. Also, a 24-hour delay in postings would give a lot of people time to think about what they are saying. If everyone had 24 hours between typing and posting, they would have time to delete, revise, and rethink their posts.

This cut through to me, message to Rashford from a 6 year old.

They will all be scurrying trying to delete their accounts! too late folks! (or of course they will try and plead "oh but my account was hacked)" yaa right. Save that for the courts.

Finally Boris is to take action over the latest racist abuse of the 3 footballers. According to The Guardian he has summoned executives from the Social media to Downing Street where he will meet them in person. He will ask them to hand over to the police details of those who posted racism online.

This is ahead of the tougher laws I keep mentioning in The Online Harms Bill.

Out of evil comes good. Let’s hope this really does tackle racism, discrimination, and other hate messages on social media.

Honestly, I wonder how that "man's" family feel?
Surely he must be thoroughly ashamed of himself?

"themselves"

I wonder how many of them feel like the "Big man/Woman now"!!! throwing missiles/calling out racists abuse etc etc

Oh they all feel BRAVE! when they are with their so called mates or hiding behind a keyboard/mobile.

But now I'm sure many many will be cra****g thems, waiting for that KNOCK AT THE DOOR!!

I see at the moment one person a 50 yr old male from Worcester has been arrested and released under investigation.

the phrase comes to mind "Smile your on Candid camera"

I don't use Twitter of Facebook, never have, but I know what has been going on.
It's really not as simple as not reading it.

Elleee

Lin52, Tyrone Mings isn't a pundit, he actually plays for England and he is black
I would imagine that he knows what he is talking about
The excuses on here, the justification for the Government not condemning booing the England team 'taking the knee' is indefensible

Oh dear me, not justifying or excusing anything, what by saying each individual is responsible for their own actions.

Alegrias1

I was agreeing with you GG13 ?

Sorry it’s me multitasking again.

I skim read and get things arse about face

I just wonder if they had won their penalties, would they have been heroes? Polite words can’t describe what I think of these pathetic excuses for human beings.

I was agreeing with you GG13 ?

Alegrias1

^I assume that they will come up with an algorithm to spot racist or bullying tweets and immediately delete them anytime soon.^

I think they already do GG13, but happy to be proved wrong if not. But it does deflect from the real problem if everyone blames the messenger, not the message.

I wasn’t blaming the messenger

Just pointing out that there are idiots out there who despite being in school from 4 -16 (now 18 or an apprenticeship) who think it’s ok to be idiotic. In the case of the young footballers it manifested into racism and horrendous trolling of those three young talented lads.

I hope you hope those responsible are feeling remorse and shame, though I very much doubt it.

I think it all boils down to the fact that there is unfortunately no cure for stupidity.

There must be a way to remove abuse and dark websites. I have to wonder why people like footballers and celebrities bother with social media. One member from the pop group Little Mix had vile abuse for ages all because she dared to weigh more than 6 stone. She brought on mental health issues and she has now left the group. Why keep reading those messages?

I assume that they will come up with an algorithm to spot racist or bullying tweets and immediately delete them anytime soon.

I think they already do GG13, but happy to be proved wrong if not. But it does deflect from the real problem if everyone blames the messenger, not the message.