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A new report has revealed the scale of abuse targeting Premier League footballers on Twitter amid concerns about racist and hostile messages on social media.
Research by Ofcom and the Alan Turing Institute has found that while the vast majority of tweets sent to footballers are positive, around 3.5% of them are abusive.
The study analysed more than 2.3 million tweets directed at Premier League players over the first five months of the 2021-22 season and found that almost 60,000 were abusive.
It also revealed that 418 of the 618 players analysed – two thirds – received at least one abusive tweet, with 8% of that abuse aimed at a protected characteristic such as their race or gender.
Some of the abuse was sent in the aftermath of the Euro 2020 finals – in which England lost the final on penalties to Italy – and where there was much discussion about the role that anonymous accounts played.
England manager Gareth Southgate said that much of the abuse was originating from abroad, although Twitter responded that “the UK was – by far – the largest country of origin” for racist abuse sent to England footballers.
The social media company added that 99% of the accounts which it suspended over the abuse were not anonymous, although it did not disclose how many accounts were suspended.
According to the new study the majority of users who send abusive tweets to players are not necessarily hiding behind anonymous accounts as they are also active on the platform for other reasons and regularly send non-abusive tweets to players too.
Who is receiving the abusive tweets?
Just a dozen players received half of all abusive tweets – and eight of the top ten were all Manchester United players, suggesting that the popularity of the club skews the statistics when considered just in terms of volume.
The research also consistently found a relationship between perceived underperformance on the pitch and abusive messages, prompting them to suggest that often the…
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Source : skynews
