Social Media Series 4 — Abuse

Summer 2021 had the whole of Europe going football crazy! The European Champions were held all over the continent with the semi-finals and the final held in the country dubbed the home of football, England. After a tough pandemic, all the countries in Europe wanted to win a hard-earned trophy to give the people back home something to celebrate. In the UK, we thought this would be England... In fact, we were well prepared for it to be England, but much like the past, there was a bitter end. Losing on a brutal penalty shootout which saw both goalkeepers make brilliant saves.

For myself in particular, what made it extremely brutal to watch was seeing who missed the penalties for England. It was one black person, then another black person. Myself and black people all over the country were pleadingly thinking, 'Please save the next penalty to save these guys from getting abuse!' Then we had a saved penalty by the England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Huge relief. Then up steps 19 year old Bukayo Saka. At that moment history was made and everyone knew what this poor young man would have to shoulder. The difference in this occurrence compared to anything I've ever written before to do with race (e.g. hypersensitivity) is that most people from all races and creeds knew the racial abuse, he and the other two footballers (Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford) were about to receive. As expected, this abuse would predominantly be found on Social Media.?

Responsibility

Social Media is a space where people can be whoever they want to be. Good or bad, people create their social media personas and build a reality for themselves (as stated in the Social Media Series 2 — Trolling). So, it can be argued that in order for people to show their true selves behind the character they put out daily, anonymity provides the shield they feel they need. The response to the racist abuse that has been witnessed as a result of the Euro 2020 finals, was largely blamed on football culture and Social Media.

Accountability

What I noticed in the media narrative was that rarely have we seen wider society (complicit people and passive people) being made accountable for this racial abuse that has recently seemed to be emboldened. The football players were taking the knee before games, and clearly stated that this was to make a statement against racial abuse (much like Colin Kaepernick, an American Footballer in the US). This statement was met by boos from their own fans. Those who disagreed with this act chose to believe it was against 'Marxism' or politics instead of what the footballers explicitly said. The Prime Minister the of country and the Home Secretary both defended the fans who booed, with the Home Secretary clearly stating that she was against protests for 'Black Lives Matter'. There was then a Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities with handpicked members from racial minorities who maintained a stance that there is no structural or institutional racism within the UK – only small instances here and there. In order to combat this issue, the Prime Minister has had a meeting with leading Social Media companies.

What's being done

In this meeting with Social Media companies, Black Brits will be represented by a man who previously described people like them as 'piccaninnies' with 'watermelon smiles'. He also claimed Former US President Barack Obama had an ancestral dislike of the British Empire due to his Kenyan background. This is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson. I cannot speak for how hopeful all Black British people will be with him at the helm to resolve the issue, but I can state that England defender Tyrone Mings has publicly criticised Johnson's Home Secretary for 'stoking the fire' with her stance against anti-racism. With over half a million likes on Twitter, this indicates huge opposition in trust for the Prime Minister and his government to solve this issue.

Social Media and Racial Abuse

The main culprits were Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Twitter reportedly deleted over 1,000 tweets on the night of the game. Hashtags were limited to 6 only, with many on the platform fearing that the 'N word' was trending. Instagram still has a lot of racial abuse comments from the night of the game which are still visible on the platform till this day. They have spoken out and made their regular statement that they are committed to removing racist abuse from the platform. Snapchat reportedly had a score chart on violent acts to carry out on black people for 'throwing away' the European Championships. If these posts and comments are removed from these platforms, the ‘evidence’ of abuse will simply disappear, and people can carry on as if these feelings do not exist. Entrepreneur, Steven Bartlett called for Social Media companies to properly validate users with passports before they create an account. All social media professionals know that the more barriers there are to an action, the less likely people are to take them. So, this could potentially lead to people no longer using these social media platforms (less numbers) or people moving to a social media platform that does not have these restrictions. So as much as we'd like social media platforms to take action, I personally think it's wrong for them to take responsibility for a societal problem such as racism, and extra validation should be the choice of the platform.

The way forward

I believe the way forward would simply be for people to have those offline conversations about race that they have been avoiding for so long. There does not seem to be any shortcut solution. Putting restrictions on Social Media to fight abuse could be as effective as drinking soup with a fork. They have been trying to do this already for years and Twitter were clearly working overtime on the night of the European Championships Final. With the lockdown coming to a close, one of the biggest advantages is that we can now have proper dialogue without the use of technology. Perhaps this can be utilised to take a step closer so something that could look like a resolution.