Yahoo News Swansea boycott social media for seven days in stand against online abuse
Swansea City are boycotting all forms of social media for a week as they make a stand in the battle against online abuse and discrimination.
From 5pm today, all players (including those from the academy and women’s team), the community trust, staff and official club channels will not post any content for a period of seven days.
The club-wide stance will cover Swansea’s upcoming matches against Millwall this Saturday and Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, April 13.
Swansea’s decision comes after Jamal Lowe became the third Swansea player in less than two months to be subjected to racial abuse on Instagram after he was targeted last Friday. Yan Dhanda was also targeted earlier this season, while Ben Cabango was in March, too.
Chief executive Julian Winter has sent a letter to Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, and Facebook’s founder, chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg to reiterate the club’s stance and desire to see social media companies introduce more stringent policing and punishments for those guilty of the appalling and cowardly abuse that has sadly become far too common.
In a statement, Swansea said: “As a football club, we have seen several of our players subjected to abhorrent abuse in the past seven weeks alone, and we feel it is right to take a stand against behaviour that is a blight on our sport, and society at large.
“We will always be unwavering in our support of our players, staff, supporters and the community that we proudly represent, and we are united as a club on this issue.
“We also want to stand with players from other clubs who have had to endure vile discrimination on social media platforms.”
Thierry Henry recently quit social media and said he will not return until proper action is taken against racist abuse on the platforms.
His old club Arsenal also recently revealed they are not opposed to the idea of boycotting platforms if abuse does not stop.
Asked earlier this month if Arsenal would consider a temporary suspension of its social media accounts, chief executive Vinai Venkatesham said: “I would say that nothing is off the table.”
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