Bukayo Saka, Shaka Hislop slam Facebook and Twitter’s response to racism

LONDON – Football stars past and present believe social media companies need to improve their game when it comes to tackling racist abuse on their platforms.

Black English footballers Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka have been the target of a torrent of racist abuse on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter following England’s loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final Sunday night.

Shaka Hislop, former West Ham United and Newcastle United goalkeeper, a founding member of the Show Racism the Red Card campaign group, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that social media companies need to do more, and accused them of “hiding in a selfish way.”

The former footballer said social media companies base their value on the number of users, whether the user accounts are real or not, as this increases their bottom line or their stock price.

“For me, that is not a sufficient excuse to continue to allow racism on their platforms like they have done,” he said.

“Their responsibility to the wider community goes far beyond their valuations or what their shareholders can get from their companies,” Hislop added. “They play a role in our culture, they play a role in our communities, and they need to recognize it.”

Saka, a 19-year-old Arsenal midfielder, said in a statement Thursday that he did not want a child or adult to receive the “hateful and hurtful messages” that he, Rashford and Sancho received this week after missing penalties for England.

“I instantly knew the kind of hate I was about to receive and it is a sad reality that your powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages,” he said.

“There is no place for racism or hatred of any kind in football or any area of ​​society and for the majority of people who come together to call out these messages, taking taking action and reporting these comments to the police and chasing hatred by being kind to each other, we will win, ”Saka said.

Sancho wrote on his Instagram profile on Wednesday that he saw the racist abuse after the game and that “this is nothing new”. Meanwhile, Rashford has said he won’t apologize for who he is.

A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC on Monday that the company has moved quickly to eliminate racial abuse targeting English gamers on Instagram, which it owns.

“No one should have to face racist abuse anywhere, and we don’t want it on Instagram,” the spokesperson said. “We quickly removed comments and reports of abuse of English footballers last night and will continue to take action against those who break our rules.”

However, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri admitted Thursday that his algorithms allow certain racist comments and emojis to remain on the platform.

“We have the technology to try to prioritize the reports, and we were mistakenly marking some of them as benign comments, which they absolutely are not,” Mosseri said on Twitter in response to a BBC reporter. .

“The problem has since been resolved, and the post has all that background.”

A spokesperson for Twitter said racist abuse has no place on its platform, adding that it has used software and human examiners to delete more than 1,000 tweets and permanently suspend a number of accounts.

The UK government aims to crack down on big tech companies over the proliferation of harmful content. The proposed legislation, known as the Online Safety Bill, would give media watchdog Ofcom the power to impose fines on companies of up to £ 18million (24.9 million dollars) or 10% of their annual worldwide revenue, whichever is greater, for violations.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday promised to ban anyone who posts racist abuse online from football matches, but he did not give a deadline.

Hislop said the law will need to be enforced after it is implemented.

“I believe that the application of laws and other legislation guides the behavior of the public,” he said. “Audience behavior dictates culture changes, and that’s what we need here.”

– Additional reporting by CNBC’s Ryan Browne.