UEFA to join English clubs in social media boycott

ANKARA

UEFA on Thursday said it will support the English football's social media boycott this weekend to protest online abuse.

"UEFA will join a coalition of English footballing stakeholders by staying silent across its social media platforms this weekend. The aim of the boycott is to show solidarity in the fight against online abuse. It will run from 16:00 CEST [1400GMT] on Friday till 23:59 CEST [2159GMT] on Monday," the European football's governing body said on Twitter.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said they are backing the initiative by the English Football Association (FA) because the culture of hate speech is "very dangerous" for the game, as well as societies if it is allowed to grow without penalties.

The abusive acts and remarks both on the pitch and online platforms are "unacceptable" and have to be stopped, he added.

Football clubs in England will boycott their social media platforms for four days to combat cyber abuse, discrimination and online hate.

As part of this boycott, the FA and both men's and women's professional football clubs in English divisions such as the Premier League, English Football League, Barclays FA Women's Super League and Women’s Championship will shut their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts temporarily.

The boycott aims to emphasize that the social media firms should do more to erase online discrimination, hate and cyberbullying.

In February, the football association sent an open letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, requesting that offensive and racist posts or messages be "filtered and blocked before being sent or posted."

It called for all users of Twitter and Facebook to face "an improved verification process."