Sterling calls for action against racist online trolls as survey reveals shocking numbers

Manchester City star Raheem Sterling has called for social media platforms to show real leadership and impose stringent measures on racist abuse. According to a latest study, more than 3000 explicit messages were sent to Premier League players during the six-week Project Restart period. Man City's Sterling, Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha and Wycombe's Adebayo Akinfenwa were amongst the players targeted the most, receiving more than 50% of the abuse. 

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Sterling racist trolls: Study reveals Premier league stars received more than 3000 abusive public texts during Restart

A study by the Professional Footballers’ Association in partnership with the data science company Signify Group and supported by Kick It Out, studied the Twitter accounts of 44 black and ethnic minority current and former players. These included 39 from the Premier League, Women’s Super League and EFL and five from Serie A and the Bundesliga including the likes of Jadon Sancho and Romelu Lukaku. In the six-week period during the Project Restart, of the 3000 explicit texts, more than 56% of the discriminatory abuse was racist, while close to 43% of the Premier League players experienced racist abuse online. 

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50% of the total online abuse recorded in this study was received by three focus players, Sterling, Zaha and Akinfenwa, who spoke up on Black Lives Matter during the same period. The Man City winger said that football and the social media platforms need to step up and show real leadership and tackle online abuse. The England international said that he is increasingly doubting whether there is a will to make a difference considering the technology is available to do the same. Akinfenwa said that the time for talking had passed and players don't want to hear warm words of comfort anymore. The research also highlighted a blind spot for social media platforms, with more than 29% of the abuse came in the form of emojis.

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The PFA and Kick It Out are set to urge the stakeholders of the game to collate and adopt a centralised system, which lead to stadium bans, suspensions or prosecutions within amateur and grassroots football. Sanjay Bhandari, chair of Kick It Out said that the report confirmed that social media has become a battleground of hate with very little consequences for the abusers. Bhandari said that the players and the victims are let down by cracks in the system, and they need government, law enforcement, the leagues and clubs to commit to working together to fill in those cracks to put a crackdown on the abuse. 

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(Image Courtesy: Raheem Sterling Instagram)