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Report: Twitter to Monitor Profiles of 50 Black Footballers After Racist Abuse
August 22, 2019
Twitter is reportedly set to closely monitor activity on the platform surrounding 50 high-profile black footballers in an attempt to stop racist abuse.
According to Martyn Ziegler of The Times, "the monitoring system will aim to react more promptly to remove racist posts, block abusers' accounts and report them to the police."
A Twitter insider said, "we've made it a priority to reduce the burden on people to report."
Manchester United's Paul Pogba was abused on social media on Monday after he saw a penalty saved in the 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League.
The Frenchman's United team-mates Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire made their feelings known on the matter:
Twitter provided a statement to Rob Harris of the Associated Press about the incidents:
Chelsea also condemned "abhorrent posts" directed towards striker Tammy Abraham after he missed the decisive penalty in the shootout loss to Liverpool in the UEFA Super Cup final. On Sunday, Reading said, "we won't give oxygen to racist comments" sent to Yakou Meite after he also missed a penalty.
BBC Sport reported that Twitter will meet with United and Kick It Out following the abuse directed towards Pogba.
Meanwhile, Liam Twomey of The Athletic said he is unsure whether the proposed monitoring measures set to be taken by Twitter get to the root of the problem:
Per Ziegler, some footballers took part in a 24-hour boycott of social media last season, triggering a meeting between representatives from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the Premier League.
Twitter has since reportedly changed its policy when it comes to racist and abusive posts to a more proactive approach. In the past, the platform would only investigate instances of racist or discriminatory language if they were reported.