English Sports Teams Begin Their Boycott of Social Media

Stamping out racism in any respect is, quite rightly, very much on many people's agendas. One example being England's athletes and sports stars who, along with their teams, are taking a social media stand against online racism.

England Sports Social Media Blackout Has Begun

We reported previously that English soccer teams were planning a social media blackout in a stand against online racism. This is a message that teams and players collectively want to spread; that racism online, or anywhere else, is totally unacceptable.

According to a Premier League statement, the blackout is now underway and will continue across the entire weekend, including Monday's UK public holiday.

The blackout began at 15:00 BST (11:00 EST) on Friday April 30th, and sports personalities involved will not be back on social media until Tuesday May 4th, with the boycott lifting at 23:59 BST on Monday.

What Will the Blackout Involve?

As with any blackout, it involves sports players and teams steering clear of social media. So there will be no posts about football, cricket, or rugby, from the teams and players involved in each respective sport. That is because they have boycotted all the platforms mentioned above.

During the blackout, you won't see posts from sporting bodies or athletes on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media platform.

Why Are Sports Teams Boycotting Social Media?

One word. Racism. It is unacceptable to racially abuse anyone, on or offline. Sporting personalities want you to know this. The Premier League announcement says:

We want social media companies to do more to prevent the online discriminatory abuse received by players and many others across the world, which goes without any real-life consequences for the perpetrators. We know that a boycott alone will not eradicate this, which is why we will continue to take proactive steps to call for change. We will not stop challenging social media companies until discriminatory online abuse is removed from our game and wider society.

Clearly social media platforms aren't doing enough to stop racism from raising its ugly head on the channels they host. More needs to be done, and this blackout is a start.

Perhaps without the stars and teams that bring so many users to social platforms, the platform owners will start to think about how racism is rife and that they need to do a lot more to eradicate it.

Taking a Stand Against Racism

Perhaps if more people followed suit and abandoned social media on the grounds of stamping out racism, then platform owners might stop and pay attention. While it isn't going to end racism overnight, unfortunately, it is a great place for everyone who uses social media to start.