English football to boycott social media over abuse

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - Football clubs in England will boycott their social media platforms for four days to combat cyber abuse, discrimination and online hate, the English Football Association (FA) said on Sunday.

"We will join the Premier League, EFL, PFA, LMA, PGMOL, Kick It Out, Women in Football and the FSA in uniting for a social media boycott from 3pm on Friday 30 April to 11.59pm on Monday 3 May, in response to the ongoing and sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many others connected to football," the FA said in a statement.

It said that both men's and women's professional football clubs in English divisions such as the Premier League, English Football League, Barclays FA Women's Super League and Women’s Championship will turn off their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram accounts temporarily.

The boycott aims to emphasize that the social media firms should do more to erase the online discrimination, hate and cyberbullying.

In February, the English football association sent an open letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, requesting that offensive and racist posts or messages should be "filtered and blocked before being sent or posted."

It called for all users of Twitter and Facebook to face "an improved verification process."