T
he government is committed to cracking down on racist online abuse against footballers by amending the law.
Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger was the latest top player to reveal he had been subjected to racist abuse on social media following the sacking of manager Frank Lampard.
Chelsea have opened an investigation into the allegations and said they will pass any information on to the police, who are already investigating racist messages targeting Rudiger’s teammate Reece James.
Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports, said social media companies will now become more responsible under proposed new government measures.
He wrote on Twitter this morning: “Racist abuse of footballers online is absolutely shocking and must stop.
“Before this recent wave of cases, I called a meeting to hear first-hand accounts of the daily abuse players suffer and the terrible toll it places on them.
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“We are going to change the law to make social media companies more accountable for what happens on their platforms and they can start showing their due diligence to players today by eliminating racist abuse now.” Players don’t have to be mistreated to do their jobs, that’s enough.
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