Eni Aluko says legal action can help curb racism on social media
Footballers should think about pursuing legal actions in order to combat abuse that is discriminatory on networking, according to England footballer Eni Aluko.
Dozens of all footballers have been subjected to racist abuse this year, with the online cases including Kurt Zouma and Chelsea set Tammy Abraham, and Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba.
Social networking companies are not doing enough to tackle racism directed at people through their platforms, based on Juventus forward Aluko, who suggests the Professional Footballers’ Association should act to protect players from abuse.
“It is time to take action over online abuse,” Aluko, who’s also a sports lawyer, wrote in her weekly column at The Guardian.
“Black footballers sometimes instills cases of the racism directed at them on social media, however Twitter and Facebook are not doing enough to prevent it. Controversy and fury are what draws people to the site : if it is actually needed by anything Twitter.
“But we can find out who these individuals are. All it requires is a court order to discharge their titles, and they are in trouble. There are laws in place to stop this stuff, and people who do not understand the moral argument against racism need to recognize that there’ll be legal consequences.
“Perhaps the very best solution would be for female, black and BAME-background athletes to take collective actions. If the Professional Footballers’ Association is committed to protecting players’ interests, they need to also be considering this problem.
“Maybe they can build a legal team especially to undertake the likes of Twitter and induce them to identify the people who racially abuse their members so they can be pursued by police or the courts.
“Footballers will need to step up and make sure even if the FA or Twitter aren’t going to do anything, we’re.”