SOCIAL MEDIA BLACKOUT TO SILENCE ABUSE

Football’s social media boycott could spread to other sports and to sponsors — and organisers are hoping that individual players also join in the weekend blackout. the t Fa, Premier league, EFl, Women’s super league and Fa Women’s Championship have all agreed to take a stand with the aim of forcing fo social media giants like Instagram, twitter t and Facebook to tackle online abuse. the Professional Footballers’ association a has talked to members, who are also ready to join the boycott which starts at 3pm on Friday and finishes at midnight on Monday. the move follows social media blackouts by swansea, birmingham and Rangers in recent weeks, with liverpool captain Jordan Henderson saying he would be willing to follow arsenal legende thierry Henry in coming offline altogether a in protest. leeds star Kalvin Phillips (above) was quick to lende his support, yesterday, saying: ‘I think it’s good. If it helps catch people who are sending the online abuse and just making sure everyone has verification for who they are, I’m all for it. I think everyone should get behind it.’ His views were echoed by Manchester City captain Fernandinho, who added: ‘this is the first fi step, I hope this changes online abuse, we will see what happens next.’ swansea were prompted to take action after Yan Dhanda, ben Cabango and Jamal lowe were all targeted, and Marcus Rashford, trent alexander-arnold, Raheem sterling and tyrone Mings are also on the long list of players to have suffered racist abuse online in recent times. sanjay bhandari, chairman of anti-racism group Kick It out, said: ‘social media is now sadly a regular vessel for toxic abuse. this boycott signifies our collective anger at the damage this causes to the people who play, watch and work in the game. by removing ourselves from the platforms, we are making a symbolic gesture to those with power.’