Jimmy: Blackout is good but abuse battle must go on
JIMMY Floyd Hasselbaink believes this weekend’s social media blackout must only be a start in the battle to tackle online abuse.
Many sports clubs in this country, their players and staff and organisations involved in reporting on them, including the Burton Mail and all of its sister titles in the nationwide Reach plc group switched off their social media at 3pm yesterday and will resume only on Tuesday morning, after the Bank Holiday.
The aim is to try to jolt the companies that run social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter into taking stronger steps to tackle online abuse of all kinds.
“It’s a good start and it’s important that we all tackle it,” said Hasselbaink.
“But I think it must only be a start and there must be more.
“This time it’s a weekend. Let’s see if the social media platforms themselves do something about it, otherwise, next time, we need to do it a lot longer, because this really needs to stop.
“We have to get the right outcome out of it.
“I think it’s needed and, hopefully, they will see that they need to change.
“I think the government has to do something about it too, I think there needs to be legislation. We all have a responsibility to make it better.”
The Burton Albion manager said there was no need for a discussion with his players about taking part.
“Everyone was on it right away and wanted to be part of it. We are all going to be part of it,” he said.
Hasselbaink believes online abusers should be traced and have the privilege of being about to use social media removed from them.
“If it happens, these people need to be taken off the social media platforms and not be able to get back on,” he said.
“If it means doing something with their computers or mobile phones, then so be it.
“Everything is traceable, so why can’t we trace these people?
“It saddens me very much that someone is taking time to give abuse to someone they don’t know who is trying to do their work, or whatever, to their best ability.
“They make a mistake, in someone’s eyes, and people think they can then say whatever they want, in a despicable way. It’s not on.”