Premier League clubs across England will join together to boycott social media from Friday 30th of April to Monday 3rd of May next month in response to the ongoing racist abuse that players, coaches and officials face online.
Back in February, various premier league clubs wrote letters to social media companies requesting them to take action against abusive and racist posts by fans on the online platforms.
The boycott has the support of a coalition of groups, including the Premier League which is the richest and most high profile football league in the world, but also England’s football federation which consists of the top two professional tiers of men’s and women’s soccer, referees, the country’s players union, and others.
The action is the most direct effort yet by a sport to pressure giant social media companies like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to take action against online abuse, and comes after a season in which players, clubs, team executives, referees, female commentators and others have been the targets of abuse.
A joint statement from authorities and organisations across English football stated that the social media blackout shows English football coming together to emphasise that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate, while highlighting the importance of educating people in the ongoing fight against discrimination.
There has been a recent increase in abusive messages being sent to players online and in recent months, a couple of players at Premier League clubs have been targeted with racist abuse, including Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Axel Tuanzebe, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Sadio Mane and Chelsea’s Reece James among many others.
The English football authorities are hopeful that the social media blackout would create awareness to the general public and the various social media organisations would take action by holding the online abusers accountable for their acts.