UEFA; Facebook will boycott Twitter and Instagram
UEFA will close its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for three days to protest the increasing cyber abuse and discriminatory rhetoric on social media.
Recently, racist attacks against football players have increased considerably. Racism, which is one of the most complained issues by black football players, especially in the English Premier League, had activated the social media platform Facebook and announced that they would take measures.
British football clubs recently decided to close their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for three days to protest the increasing cyber abuse and discriminatory rhetoric on social media.
According to the statement made by UEFA, it was announced that the boycott application initiated by British football clubs will be supported and social media accounts will be closed.
Speaking in the statement, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin emphasized that harassment and discriminatory discourses on the internet are unacceptable.
Ceferin declared war on social media
Stating that measures should be taken to stop the spread of this crime, Ceferin said, “The player, coach, referee or official who is the victim of these unacceptable posts or messages, I urge everyone to file an official complaint. We have more than enough of these cowards who are hiding behind their anonymous profiles to reveal their harmful ideologies.” used the expressions.
The social media boycott will begin at 15:00 UK local time on April 30 and end on May 3 at 23.59.
In February, the English Football Association, the Premier League and the English Football League, as well as organizations including football players and referee associations, published an open letter addressing Twitter and Facebook’s top executives (CEO) Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg.
In the letter, which emphasized the increase of racist messages against football players and referees on social media, “Your failure to act on this issue has led the perpetrators to think that they cannot be reached. The continuous flow of racist and discriminatory messages feeds itself.
The more tolerated by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, which have billions of users, the more it becomes a normal and accepted behavior. “
The letter requested social media platforms to establish a mechanism to filter and block racist expressions before being shared, to improve identity verification procedures, and to assist judicial authorities in identifying people who share illegal discriminatory materials.
