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

Racist abuse of these young men is unacceptable. But I hope the Media are not branding the people of this country as a whole as institutionally racist because I don't think we are at all. I accept that there is a certain fringe element who are, but in general I think most people are open and welcoming no matter what colour your skin. This England team have been uplifting, we have all got behind them and supported them and I really hope that they are bigger than this racist abuse and rise above it and realise that we all support and admire them.

I suppose, in a way, it has highlighted to people that victims aren't all faceless entities.
They are real people, and it is utterly vile.

justme2

Maybe it's time for adults to grow up and show some maturity instead of acting like hormonal teenagers.

Ha, my three “hormonal” teenage DG have all been appalled by this racist behaviour, and denounced it as disgusting.

eazybee

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

Well said eazybee.

I just posted something similar on another thread, but here it is again.

Rashford tweeted his support for Raducanu and talked about how a similar thing happened to him. There's a lot of talk about how bad Twitter is but nobody talking about it when it used for good.

Alegrias1

I just posted something similar on another thread, but here it is again.

Rashford tweeted his support for Raducanu and talked about how a similar thing happened to him. There's a lot of talk about how bad Twitter is but nobody talking about it when it used for good.

Totally agree, Twitter has found people lost with dementia, lost pets, publicised good causes. I have even seen people offered jobs after tweeting that they were unemployed.

Social Media is not the problem it’s the minority of idiots who would have behaved liked idiots in some form or another anyway.

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

Definitely yes!

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.

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?

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.

I was agreeing with you GG13 ?

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.

Alegrias1

I was agreeing with you GG13 ?

Sorry it’s me multitasking again.

I skim read and get things arse about face

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.

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.

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"

"themselves"

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Those who defaced the Rashford mural were not “abroad”