Marcus Rashford says racists on social media should have accounts deleted
Marcus Rashford has said social media companies should ‘immediately’ delete accounts of people who spread racist abuse.
The Manchester United striker has often been the victim of racism online and recently had to deal with a stream of derogatory comments after his team drew 0-0 with Arsenal two weeks ago.
He told Sky Sports it ‘should be easy to stop’ online abuse because companies should just ‘deactivate the accounts’.
The footballer added: ‘We know that it’s very easy to make four or five accounts but if you have to block them all, then block them all.
‘That’s on the social media companies themselves. If they see anyone being abusive in any way, their account should be deleted immediately, that’s how you’d deal with it.’
He argued that social media is ‘a place people should enjoy’ that was not even there ‘15 years ago’.
Rashford said it was something ‘we are privileged’ to have and should not be used in a ‘negative light’.
It comes after Manchester United’s midfielder Paul Pogba was racially abused for missing a penalty.
Lioness Manager Phil Neville responded by calling for footballers to quit social media because he believes the companies are not doing enough to keep people safe from racism.
He added: ‘I’ve lost total faith in whoever runs these social media departments, so let’s send a powerful message: come off social media (for) six months. Let’s see the effect it has on these social media companies.’
Earlier this week many football bosses wrote an open letter to Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The letter was signed by The Premier League, FA, EFL, WSL, Women’s Championship, PFA, LMA, PGMOL and Kick It Out.
The letter called on social media companies to ‘go further’ to stop racist abuse.
Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has promised to remove accounts that post discriminatory messages and Twitter has said it would work closely with the football community to deal with the issue.
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