Twitter and Manchester United representatives will meet within the next few weeks to discuss the racist abuse aimed at Paul Pogba following Monday night’s game with Wolves.
Pogba was targeted after failing to score a penalty in the 1-1 draw at Molineux on Monday and was backed by team-mates Harry Maguire and Marcus Rashford, who called on Twitter to take action against the culprits.
Disgusting. Social media need to do something about it… Every account that is opened should be verified by a passport/driving licence. Stop these pathetic trolls making numerous accounts to abuse people. @Twitter @instagram https://t.co/bzow073aTw
— Harry Maguire (@HarryMaguire93) August 20, 2019
Manchester United has zero tolerance of any form of racism or discrimination. #allredallequal pic.twitter.com/neapEz2FFa
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 20, 2019
Manchester United is a family. @paulpogba is a huge part of that family. You attack him you attack us all… @ManUtd https://t.co/PgalnFQMeu
— Marcus Rashford (@MarcusRashford) August 20, 2019
Greater Manchester Police have told Sky Sports News that no formal investigation has yet been launched into the abuse directed at Pogba because there has so far been no specific complaint made to them from the public.
“Over the next few weeks, Twitter representatives will meet with Manchester United, Kick It Out and any other civil society stakeholders interested in hearing about the proactive work Twitter is doing to address online racist abuse towards certain footballers in the UK,” a Twitter spokesman told Sky Sports News.
“We have always maintained an open and healthy dialogue with our partners in this space, but we know we need to do more to protect our users. Racist behaviour has no place on our platform and we strongly condemn it.
“To this end, we look forward to working more closely with our partners to develop shared solutions together. In the meantime, for Twitter’s part, we will continue to proactively monitor the conversation, and take aggressive enforcement action when content violates our Rules.”
Manchester United are also keen for Kick It Out, the Football Association and the Premier League to take a lead for a more gathered approach from teams in general to hopefully solve this issue from all angles.
Last week, Twitter had agreed to discuss racist abuse with football anti-discrimination group Kick It Out for the first time following the abuse received by Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham after he missed the decisive penalty in their UEFA Super Cup defeat to Liverpool.
Reading midfielder YakouMeite was also subjected to racial abuse after a 3-0 win over Cardiff in the Championship.
PFA deputy chief executive Bobby Barnes has warned players could be forced off social media if racist abuse continues, describing the platform as a “new battleground”.
He told Sky Sports News: “Towards the back end of last season, we saw a few incidents creeping back into the grounds, which we were obviously very concerned about.
“We’re now heading towards a new battleground of social media. Players have opened up and engaged with the fans, but there’s a situation now where you’re starting to question whether players should even be on it at all.
“The one thing social media has done is make players more accessible. It would be a real shame if a small minority of idiots were to spoil that.”
source: sky sports
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