Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has said that online abuse should be easier to stop.
Rashford was subjected to racist abuse following Manchester United’s 0-0 draw at Arsenal a fortnight ago, comments he described as “humanity and social media at its worst”.
It came amid widespread racist abuse for several high-profile players in both the men’s and women’s game with Premier League referee Mike Dean also being subjected to death threats following a controversial decision over the weekend.
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The Premier League, FA, EFL, WSL, Women’s Championship, PFA, LMA, PGMOL and Kick It Out all co-signed an open letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, demanding immediate action over numerous incidents of abuse aimed at footballers and officials.
Facebook-owned Instagram announced new measures, including the removal of accounts to prevent abusive messages on its platform, while Twitter condemned the behaviour and vowed to work closely with the football community to tackle the unacceptable behaviour.
Rashford feels deleting accounts should be a straightforward process and that social media can actually be a positive platform in terms of learning about other cultures.
“Online abuse – it should be easy to stop, just deactivate the accounts,” he told Sky Sports News. “We know that it’s very easy to make four or five accounts but if you have to block them all, then block them all.
“That’s on the social media companies themselves. If they see anyone being abusive in any way, their account should be deleted immediately, that’s how you’d deal with it.