London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Jun 01, 2025

Ban online racist abusers from football matches - Labour

Ban online racist abusers from football matches - Labour

Anyone convicted of racist abuse online should be banned from attending football matches, Labour has suggested.

It wants the courts to be given new powers to crack down on perpetrators, like those who targeted members of the England squad after the Euros final.

Currently, only those who shout racist abuse from the terraces can be forbidden from attending games.

There has been condemnation of the abuse suffered by footballers Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho.

The trio were vilified online and a mural of Marcus Rashford was defaced following England's defeat to Italy on Sunday.

It sparked a debate about whether the government and social media companies are doing enough to combat racism in the sport.

Ministers have promised to act through the Online Safety Bill, which is yet to be published.

A draft version, which came out earlier this year, suggests it will place a duty on technology companies to protect UK users from abuse, with large fines imposed if they fail to do this.

Labour's shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens said urgent action was needed, but the government's bill would not stop racist abuse online.

She said: "The racists who have been abusing England players online should be banned from football grounds.

"They do not deserve to be anywhere near a game of football."

She said that Labour would ensure that online abuse is treated in the same way as racism directed at players from the terraces.

'Utterly disgraceful'


The prime minister met social media companies, including representatives from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok on Tuesday afternoon, to discuss the issue.

Ahead of the meeting, his spokesman said the companies should "do everything they can to identify these people [the perpetrators of racist abuse]".

And earlier, Mr Johnson told a meeting of his senior ministers that the racism aimed at footballers was "utterly disgraceful and had emerged from the dark spaces of the internet".

Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it had "quickly removed comments" directed at the players, while Twitter said it had used "a combination of machine learning based automation and human review" to remove 1,000 post and block certain accounts.


Why abuse remains rife on social media


This sheer volume swamps the armies of human moderators employed by those platforms.

Some describe nightmare shifts sifting through the worst and most graphic content imaginable and then making decisions about what should be done with it.

So, the solution these companies are all pouring countless time and money into is automation.

Algorithms trained to seek out offensive material before it is published, the blanket banning of incendiary (and illegal) hashtags, the use of techniques such as "hashing", which create a kind of digital fingerprint of a video, and then block any content bearing the same marker, are already in regular use.

But so far, automation remains a bit of a blunt instrument.

Decisive moment


In a message to Conservative MPs, the former minister Steve Baker, said the backlash over the racist abuse "may be a decisive moment" for the party.

He said "Much as we can't be associated with calls to defund the police, we urgently need to challenge out own attitude to people taking the knee."

The act of taking the knee has become a prominent symbol in sport and during anti-racist protests in recent years, and England players have been adopting the stance at the start of their matches.

His intervention comes after the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, was accused by the footballer, Tyrone Mings, of having inflamed the situation in the run up to the Euros.

Writing on Twitter on Monday evening, Mings said: "You don't get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as 'Gesture Politics' and then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we're campaigning against, happens."

On Wednesday, shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, will raise the issue in the Commons, asking an urgent question about the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Hegseth Warns of Potential Chinese Military Action Against Taiwan
OPEC+ Agrees to Increase Oil Output for Third Consecutive Month
Jamie Dimon Warns U.S. Bond Market Faces Pressure from Rising Debt
Turkey Detains Istanbul Officials Amid Anti-Corruption Crackdown
Taylor Swift Gains Ownership of Her First Six Albums
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
U.S. Goods Imports Plunge Nearly 20% Amid Tariff Disruptions
OpenAI Faces Competition from Cheaper AI Rivals
Foreign Tax Provision in U.S. Budget Bill Alarms Investors
Trump Accuses China of Violating Trade Agreement
Gerry Adams Wins Libel Case Against BBC
Russia Accuses Serbia of Supplying Arms to Ukraine
EU Central Bank Pushes to Replace US Dollar with Euro as World’s Main Currency
Chinese Woman Dies After Being Forced to Visit Bank Despite Critical Illness
President Trump Grants Full Pardons to Reality TV Stars Todd and Julie Chrisley
Texas Enacts App Store Accountability Act Mandating Age Verification
U.S. Health Secretary Ends Select COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
Vatican Calls for Sustainable Tourism in 2025 Message
Trump Warns Putin Is 'Playing with Fire' Amid Escalating Ukraine Conflict
India and Pakistan Engage Trump-Linked Lobbyists to Influence U.S. Policy
U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Enhanced Security Measures
Trump Administration Cancels $100 Million in Federal Contracts with Harvard
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Failure, Mars Mission Timeline Uncertain
King Charles Affirms Canadian Sovereignty Amid U.S. Statehood Pressure
Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on iPhones Amid Dispute with Apple CEO
Putin's Helicopter Reportedly Targeted by Ukrainian Drones
Liverpool Car Ramming Incident Leaves Multiple Injured
Australia Faces Immigration Debate Following Labor Party Victory
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Founder Warns Against Trusting Regime in Nuclear Talks
Macron Dismisses Viral Video of Wife's Gesture as Playful Banter
Cleveland Clinic Study Questions Effectiveness of Recent Flu Vaccine
Netanyahu Accuses Starmer of Siding with Hamas
Junior Doctors Threaten Strike Over 4% Pay Offer
×