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“It is unforgivable that some of them are being abused,” said Southgate, who was speaking at a virtual press conference on Monday. “Some come from abroad, we’ve been told, but some come from this country.
“We have been a beacon in bringing people together and the national team represents everyone. We felt the energy and positivity of the fans and I am incredibly proud of it,” added Southgate.
It was an act that angered sections of the English fanbase, with some supporters opting to boo as the players knelt.
“This England team deserves to be hailed as heroes, not racist abuse on social media,” Johnson said on Twitter.
“Those responsible for these appalling abuses should be ashamed of themselves.”
“Gareth Southgate and the players a few weeks ago, about five days at the trot, told us they were on their knees to promote equality and that was against racism,” Neville told Sky News.
“The Prime Minister said it was okay for the people of this country to boo the players who try to promote equality and defend themselves against racism.
“It starts at the top.”
“The point is that there is obviously a problem in football, there is a problem in society where we think it is basically okay to criticize players for sports actions because of the color of their skin.” Neville added.
Ahead of Euro 2020, Southgate wrote an open letter to the country, explaining why he thought it was important for players to continue to use their voices for good.
“We are disgusted that some of our team – who gave their all for the shirt this summer – suffered discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game. We stand behind our players.”
“Social media companies must take immediate action”
Football players who experience social media abuse are commonplace.
Savills, a UK property services provider, tweeted on Monday that it was “committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging diversity in our workforce” after one of its employees appeared to be there one of those who abuse English players on Twitter.
“A full investigation will be carried out into this unacceptable incident,” he said.
“Savills abhors and has zero tolerance for all forms of racism and racial discrimination and is appalled by the racist comments in these tweets. Savills is investigating immediately and will take appropriate action.”
Online abuse has led to calls on social media companies to do more to control their platforms.
Earlier this year, former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry deleted his social media accounts following a wave of racist abuse online targeting black footballers and what he said was the inability of social media companies to hold users accountable for their actions. Weeks after Henry closed his accounts, English football clubs and governing bodies took part in a three-day social media blackout to protest the abuse.
“Racist abuse of any kind is heinous and will not be tolerated on or off the pitch,” Khan tweeted.
“MetPoliceUK (The Metropolitan Police) will investigate the appalling online abuse targeting English gamers. Social media companies must take immediate action to eliminate and prevent this hatred.”
Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee Chairman Julian Knight echoed Khan’s sentiment.
“Social media companies once alerted to this abuse have a heavy responsibility to remove it immediately,” Knight said.
“The government must continue to legislate on the tech giants. Enough of dragging their feet, everyone suffering at the hands of racists, not just England players, deserves better protections now.”
Facebook, owner of Instagram, said in a statement to CNN that it is “committed to protecting our community from abuse.”
“No one should have to face racist abuse anywhere, and we don’t want it on Instagram,” said a spokesperson for the Facebook company.
“We promptly removed comments and accounts leading abuse against English footballers last night and will continue to take action against those who break our rules. In addition to our work to remove this content, we encourage all players to activate Hidden Words, a tool that means no one should see abuse in their comments or private messages. Nothing will solve this challenge overnight, but we are committed to protecting our community from abuse. “
In a statement sent to CNN, Twitter said it had deleted more than 1,000 tweets in the past 24 hours for “breaking our rules.”
“The heinous racist abuse directed at England players last night has absolutely no place on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
“Over the past 24 hours, through a combination of machine learning-based automation and human review, we have rapidly deleted over 1,000 Tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating our rules – the vast majority of which we have proactively detected ourselves using technology We will continue to take action when we identify Tweets or accounts that violate our policies.
“We have proactively engaged and continue to work with our partners in the football community to identify ways to collectively address this issue and will continue to play our part to address this unacceptable behavior, both online and offline. line.”
Aleks Klosok contributed to this report.
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