Last Updated on 01/05/2021 by Khushi
Image courtesy: bbc.com
As a part of a massive social media blackout, aimed at improving policies against prejudice and bullying that players and members of clubs experience on those sites, English soccer teams and organisations are all shutting down their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages for the weekend.
The Premier League, the Football Association, the League Managers Association, the English Football League, the Professional Footballers’ Association, among others are among the organisations involved in the blackout. The clubs in the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League, and Women’s Championship will also shut down their social media outlets.
The ongoing backlash comes following a coalition of English soccer organisations that wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in February, asking for the companies to take stronger action against sexist and racist remarks in an open letter.
Briefly speaking of the demands, there was an urge to introduce four changes: posts should be blocked or filtered if they include racist or offensive content; derogatory posts should be removed by “robust, open, and rapid measures”; improved verification processes should be added to enable law enforcement to identify users and prevent abusive posters from creating new accounts; and improved verification processes should be added to allow law enforcement to identify users and stop abusive posters from creating new accounts; and that the sites collaborate more closely with law enforcement to find individuals who post discriminatory material when it violates the law.
