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

I have no interest in football at all but I agree that the horrible things sent to team members is disgraceful. These people are not real fans. I do think that many football fans are a different sort of sports fan (& I have to say both my sons are mad football fans). I have had to watch the odd football match when they were both playing & many a time I had to give a piece of my mind to some of the mindless morons on the touchline- some of whom were friends of theirs!!
I am a very keen rugby fan & I also like cricket but I have never heard anything like the sort of abuse that I understand happened on Sunday. So sad.

These disgusting people should be tracked down, named and shamed.

I’ve just been watching the politics show on BBC; someone mentioned collective responsibility. If everyone boycotted popular social media, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., perhaps these companies would sit up and take more notice…?

Yes should be restricted definitely. Keyboard warriors hiding behind aliases .

The man who devised the internet never intended it to be used in the way that the minority use it, you will always get those who exploit things for their own gratification. Perhaps it has now become such a monster that it is time to stop feeding it and find other sources of communication.

Named and shamed in local and national papers then left for their employers/families to take whatever action deemed necessary.

A YouTube video with very negative comments about Southgate and the players came up completely unsolicited. The posts were all very negative without a single post defending them. The English just didn’t seem quite right so more outside stirring seems likely.

The Internet has helped me enormously dealing with an ever recurring form of skin cancer and nerve pain BUT it’s also very vulnerable to those wanting to undermine society and create chaos.

Full cooperation is unlikely internationally and it’s hard to see how a balanced humane conclusion can be reached without it.

25Avalon: I think your thread is back on track but if you would like to see my thread from back in June it was headed: Social Media - A Weapon of Self Destruction.

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1296985-Social-Media-A-Weapon-of-Self-Destruction?pg=3

I recall the temporary strike by a number of sports organisation designed to ram the message home that social media platforms should do more to monitor and counter unwarranted abuse of all kinds. It was a good gesture but little more. To have an impact, such a strike should be for the foreseeable future until they change.

Anonymity on social media is comforting for most of us but it does encourage people to use language that would probably be avoided or tempered if we were face-to-face.

Definitely yes

I heard yesterday Facebook blocked these terrible things which were written by the scum of the earth. As the PM said last night they should crawl back under the stones they came from.

GillT57 nothing to do with victim blaming at all, and getting drunk and attacked is nothing to do with social media. Why put yourself in danger or the firing line if you dont have to,

Surely in this day and age it is not beyond a computer whizz kid to design an algorithm that detects certain words and flag them up as potentially hate/race/sex issues. But then of course you would get the ‘freedom of speech’ people shouting about their rights too ??‍♀️

Stop using Twitter.
Don't read it, don't post on it.
Simple.

Football has already taken issue with social media by blocking them for 80 hours over the first May Bank Holiday. The initiative was taken by the Premier League, all of English Football, and Kick it Out.

It was demanded that social media companies such as Face Book and Twitter do more to stop online abuse. There should be fresh measures to tackle hate and discrimination including a requirement for social media giants to display a warning if a user writes an abusive message they will be asked to enter their personal details if they wish to send it. It was also asked they do detailed quarterly reports outlining the efforts they have made to prevent abuse so they could be more accountable.

This boycott was joined by cricket, Rugby and tennis as well as Sky Sports and the Guardian Sports. Every football club I know, including ours followed this boycott, with the message “Social media companies must do more to #stoponlineabuse. Join us and switch off too as we collectively demand change”.

There was a Guardian article on 28th April. No comment from Facebook. Over 2 months later we have more terrible abuse. We need to get the whole country to boycott for 80 hours.

GrannyGravy, just because the accounts are ‘abroad’ doesn’t mean that the account holders are. They are just cowardly bullies.

It’s very odd that companies such as FB find it hard to control hate speech yet they have have no problem whatsoever with bombarding me with adverts related to something which I’ve said to my Dh just minutes before.

Following all the messages about this item, most of which are disconcerted with social media, I personally am not quite sure whether you all are not talking about ANTI SOCIAL media.
Please can someone put the situation clear for me.
Thanks in anticipation
Regards Michael C.

Also why are the celebrities on social media anyway, only for their own promotion. Nice little bit of victim blaming there, do you think women who go out at night and get attacked have only themselves to blame?

Yes, yes, yes. Time these armchair racists were held to account. Preferably a large fine.

Lucca

I’ve just had a long call from my son in Sydney saying exactly this. Also saying how disgusted he was at the behaviour of some English fans generally but more concerned of course with the hideous hideous racist abuse. Who are these people,??? But twitter, Facebook etc need to get their act together and be held accountable.
Sadly, money talks.

I like the idea of Twitter, Facebook, etc. being held accountable for what is said/documented on their platforms.

Maybe we should start a campaign to re-nation alive water supply in the UK - especially after Southern Water were found to have deliberately dumped sewage into that supply.

Or, perhaps we all think it is OK to make a profit out of the essential ingredients for human life - maybe we should start charging for the air we breathe, and sell parts of the country to the banks and investment houses?

If the media would just stop talking about it, maybe just maybe we ourselves would be unaware and so the objective would be nullified. Also why are the celebrities on social media anyway, only for their own promotion. Just close their own accounts and then the abusers wouldn’t have anywhere to post.

GillT57 - in your comment you said:

"I don't agree with the petition to make it mandatory to provide ID before opening a social media account, thus way lies control of what we read, see, hear, learn."

At the moment we appear to be controlled by the broadcast and print media - which I grant has a regulatory body, and covered by libel and copyright laws. We also have the choice to buy or not buy a Murdoch control "news" outlet - but why would it be so wrong to provide some ID before opening a social media account?

Yes, I know you don't need ID to buy a paper - although you do to watch/listen to the BBC.

Social media is unregulated out there on the Internet, and precious little is or has been done by Government to regulate it - maybe we should start on Gransnet, by requiring the removal of anonymity, but keeping the same rules for joining this community??

A long time ago ??

I don't agree with the petition to make it mandatory to provide ID before opening a social media account, thus way lies control of what we read, see, hear, learn. Yes, there has been a lot of disgusting stuff on social media this weekend, and yes, it has disgusted me, but vile people are always with us, it is unfair to blame social media. The good thing about this weekend's episode is that it has brought racism to the fore, it is being discussed on tv, radio and presumably in newspapers, hopefully this, and the millions of people who have posted supportive messages to show that we are not all like this, will help the young men targeted, and will make people think twice about what they post.

I stay off Fbook and Twitter and I only use Gransnet because we know the boundaries and would never dream of being racist, homophobic, etc on this site as we all know someone would jump in and get it stopped immediately. The people using Fbook to bully others are just idiotic, ignorant cowards, but it is a big problem that it's not monitored enough and hateful posts are not taken down quick enough. Its time something is done about these big social media companies and quickly. I been told about things put on Tictoc that would make your eyes water, they can keep it, not interested.

What can be done for children on social media? By grandparents?

Don't post pictures of your grandchildren online. Don't mention where they live online. Don't name their school online. Help their parents teach them about online security. Don't ever try to contact them on social media without their parents knowledge and permission.

If children are overly vulnerable to social media, it's because so many parents and other family members are not doing their job. No child under 13 needs a social media account. No child under 10 needs unsupervised access to the internet. ALL children need to be taught how to use the internet and social media safely and wisely.

I see children who can't even read and write with their own phones and tablets. Probably without any decent parental control. This is where the problem starts.