What to do about Online Racist Abuse?

[Fingeredmouse]

Its cretins like her who are largely to blame. Her stance on players taking the knee was shocking from a woman in her position. She can spare us the crocodile tears.

Cretins like her and her party who deliberately undermine support and remove funding for the needy in society, weaponise nationalism and point the finger of blame at the "not us" for their own systematic abandoning of the people.

On this site we've seen numerous people saying it's not British society at large but "the chavs".Perhaps you might want to consider why people are this way and the massive pivotal part that politics and Government play in it. Maybe consider it next time you're at the polling booths.

 

[Kaos]

Cretins like her and her party who deliberately undermine support and remove funding for the needy in society, weaponise nationalism and point the finger of blame at the "not us" for their own systematic abandoning of the people.

On this site we've seen numerous people saying it's not British society at large but "the chavs".Perhaps you might want to consider why people are this way and the massive pivotal part that politics and Government play in it. Maybe consider it next time you're at the polling booths.

Absolutely. I hate to bring politics into this, but its hardly a good account for England when they constantly prop up these scumbags every time the polls open.

 

[Fingeredmouse]

Absolutely. I hate to bring politics into this, but its hardly a good account for England when they constantly prop up these scumbags every time the polls open.

You can't keep politics out of it. Racism in society is an inherently political matter.

 

[Shane88]

Is there anything Twitter could realistically do regarding authentication that the folks on 4chan or reddit won't find a way around in about 10 minutes?

Nope, there will always be workarounds. You'll dissuade a handful at most.

Even if they did something like banning monkey emojis (what is the point of them anyway?) a new racist emoji will be substituted in its place.

 

[UncleBob]

No. Which is why the calls for authentication/ID always sound ridiculous to me. The only people that wouldn't ultimately hurt in some way, either through the data laundering + algorithm generation the tech companies would use such data for, illicit govt use or whatever, are the people it'd be set up to detect.

How so?

 

[UncleBob]

I mean, sms verification is easy as there's a vast number of services supporting false sms verifications for the most popular services.

Forcing people to verify via a service that requires national ID, is entirely different.

 

[Offsideagain]

It was 100% guaranteed that the usual dickheads would take to Twitter from the comfort of their own pits to blame the penalty takers. These people won’t change and should be ignored instead of highlighted and given publicity.

 

[Godfather]

Get off social media. The problem itself won't be solved sadly. There will always be low life idiots letting all their frustration go over the internet with the vilest comments possible.

 

[NasirTimothy]

The most depressing prediction as soon as that shoot-out was over was that Saka, Rashford and Sancho would get a plethora of vile racist abuse by keyboard cowards.

This is as horrific as it is predictable and it needs to be stamped out like the virus that it is in society!

For me the only way to correct this is to have full identity authentication so it is no longer ‘Gammon-warrior69’ who’s seen to be abusing these people, but Mark Jones, 24yrs old from Basingstoke.

But of course these are private platforms and so Twitter, Insta and Facebook will come out with the same bullshit PR nonsense and do absolutely feck all!

‘Keyboard cowards’ is such an apt description of these lobotomised morons

 

[DJ Jeff]

How so?

You either A: won't get tech companies to consent to the hit their revenues would take through enforced KYC rules from govt ID documents, the same as even things like crypto exchanges suffer when they aren't even about making public posts

or B: You'll get it through in a swiss cheese manner where trolls won't actually be forced to ID themselves or tie themselves to an account (easy SMS workarounds like they had for phone numbers) and nothing actually changes

 

[Nou_Camp99]

Stop this ID nonsense. You wanna give away more privacy to tech platforms?

These tech companies already know more about you than you care to admit though so this excuse doesn't wash.

I really don't see any downside to all Social platforms being mandatory to be full name and ID on each profile. The only people from what I can see who stand to lose out are trolls and racists.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

To start with, they can allow celebrity accounts to have an option to not allow DMs, replies or comments from relatively new accounts. They should have the ability to not let themselves be tagged by accounts they do not follow. There's plenty that can be done to reduce the torrent of abuse from clowns who are pissed after every loss.

 

[Bosws87]

What can you do, if you start censoring the internet it loses half of it's beauty, its a near impossible problem to solve.

ID is not the solution it just moves the problem to another site/space, very out of sight out of mind policy.

Its education or in this case lack of it.

 

[UncleBob]

You either A: won't get tech companies to consent to the hit their revenues would take through enforced KYC rules from govt ID documents, the same as even things like crypto exchanges suffer when they aren't even about making public posts

or B: You'll get it through in a swiss cheese manner where trolls won't actually be forced to ID themselves or tie themselves to an account (easy SMS workarounds like they had for phone numbers) and nothing actually changes

Why would you need consent if they have no choice? It's fairly obvious that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram aren't doing a good enough job, so you need a joint effort to force them into implementing solutions that work, otherwise fine them into oblivion for being platforms for racial abuse.

 

[Jericholyte2]

What would happen if top players deleted the platforms?

Ronaldo wiped $4bn from Coca Cola's stock by moving a can! Have players post that, due to the systemic inactivity of the platforms to do anything about this, they will be deleting all social media platforms.

You'd certainly see them change tact when their stock values start to plummet then, if any go under, it would be a change for better regulated platforms to rise from their ashes.

 

[UncleBob]

What would happen if top players deleted the platforms?

Ronaldo wiped $4bn from Coca Cola's stock by moving a can! Have players post that, due to the systemic inactivity of the platforms to do anything about this, they will be deleting all social media platforms.

You'd certainly see them change tact when their stock values start to plummet then, if any go under, it would be a change for better regulated platforms to rise from their ashes.

No, he didn't.

 

[meamth]

Verifying passports/ID for social media is the only way to go.

But we all know that wouldn't happen.

 

[Borys]

Moderating is just a general term.

Again, who gives a feck if they would like to take that responsibility or not.

It's not a question of if they would like it.

it's platforms for racism and abuse, just introduce the fear of being fined into oblivion for failing to stop it and the solutions will introduce themselves.

I disagree. Good luck forcing tech giants to do anything that would hit their revenues.

So you think the solution is to make platforms fully responsible for the content? And who decides what stays and what doesn't?

 

[FreddieTheReddie]

I can imagine a future when we won't be able to create numerous email addresses for fun, but everyone will get and id including their name what will be used as an email address and will be linked to personal data, but online platforms will only see the email address and you can give any kind of username, so others won't soo who you are but if you are misbehaving it will be easy to find you. Doesn't necessarily have to be email address, could be an other special ID used for online interactions but that's the most simple and won't hurt our privacy.

 

[UncleBob]

I disagree. Good luck forcing tech giants to do anything that would hit their revenues.

So you think the solution is to make platforms fully responsible for the content? And who decides what stays and what doesn't?

Hit their revenues, wasn't it like $86billion for Facebook in 2020? How much of an impact do people think it will have if they are forced to implement a strict policy.

I fail to understand the moaning in regards to forcing tech companies to take responsibility for what their multi-billion platforms are being used to spread. As if it'll be the end of the world if racial abuse is removed from social media. Poor Mark and Facebook, it does cost money to earn billions, lets just allow everything.

 

[Borys]

Hit their revenues, wasn't it like $86billion for Facebook in 2020? How much of an impact do people think it will have if they are forced to implement a strict policy.

I fail to understand the moaning in regards to forcing tech companies to take responsibility for what their multi-billion platforms are being used to spread. As if it'll be the end of the world if racial abuse is removed from social media. Poor Mark and Facebook, it does cost money to earn billions, lets just allow everything.

What you fail to understand is how difficult it is to force a company that has annual revenue at the level of 86 bilion $ to do anything that may cost them. I couldn't care less about their well being but from what I've seen, there's not much you can do about tech giants. And I'd love to be wrong in that but that's just my scepticism about your proposed solution.

 

[Zen86]

Hit their revenues, wasn't it like $86billion for Facebook in 2020? How much of an impact do people think it will have if they are forced to implement a strict policy.

I fail to understand the moaning in regards to forcing tech companies to take responsibility for what their multi-billion platforms are being used to spread. As if it'll be the end of the world if racial abuse is removed from social media. Poor Mark and Facebook, it does cost money to earn billions, lets just allow everything.

It’s not so much whether they should, rather that they won’t. Not unless legislation is introduced that forces them to do it, but then you have the problem of needing some degree of international agreement and cooperation on that legislation, along with measures to make sure the next social media platform abides by the same rules.

 

[DelPotro]

Stop giving these trolls so much attention. I don't understand why the media keeps reporting these online abuse. To prove that racism exists 2021? Anyone who doesn't believe racism exists won't be persuaded by a few tweets. They only encourage more trolls to do the same because they think they can get to the players/celebrities this way. I bet a lot of them aren't actual racists but they say stupid racist shit just to get "noticed". It's just the unfortunate nature of social media where people can hide behind a user name to bully others. The fact that some people suggest some form of authentication is just stupid. You really want to give these tech companies even more information about yourself?

Stop reporting these stories to prevent copycats. Stay away from social media as much as possible if you are a public figure.

 

[Chickentown]

This. It’s disgusting, it was sadly predictable based on social media over the past several years, although I feel the negatives are given too much attention and it makes these little trolls feel too important when they see there actions trending on Twitter. Reality is 10000s posted support, and the ones that posted support received likes and positive comments. The minority that posted racist abuse were drowned out. My advice don’t give them (racist) time or attention…. Don’t comment, simply report.

One thing that’s gone unmentioned and shows the negativity of social media is the preset idea to turn England (real out and about not online cowards) into hooligans. The expectation was that if England lost, fans would go on a rampage and Italians would be getting beaten up, black abused in the streets (if a black player was blamed), and shops smashed up.

This clearly didn’t happen and it’s concerning to have seen the amount of lies and misinformation that was spread on Twitter and that people believed.

1) 12 black people stabbed ( Complete lie)

2) Black people being thrown onto train tracks and into the Thames (not true, video was unrelated)

3) Video of Black guy being bullied by a white guy was posted as racist. However it was later confirmed by the guy who was being bullied that it was beef and not race relate.

4) Video of stereotypical England fans kicking the crap out of an British Asian guy, advertised as either racist beating up Italian fans or beating up fellow England fan cos he’s Asian. Reality, not justifying the violence, that guy was part of a gang that stormed Wembley. Those fans were hitting all that stormed regardless of colour, the Asian slipped so got it worse. To play devils advocate, if the people that stormed Wembley didn’t get dealt with quickly, the final might have been delayed or postponed as more tried to storm it.

My reason for highlighting these, and my outrage is because the above cause more damage to communities and could genuinely start conflicts.

Completely agree. As with previous hysterical overreaction, the offending socmed comments seem limited to a handful of monkey emojis left by weirdo kids with Asian-sounding handles.

 

[Dennis Viollet]

The players need to all leave those platforms in one movement in order to make a powerful symbol

this.... and people need to get a life

 

[e.cantona]

A percentage of the population will always be racist, or whatever dumb equivalent. We're always better off knowing who they are imo

 

[UncleBob]

It’s not so much whether they should, rather that they won’t. Not unless legislation is introduced that forces them to do it, but then you have the problem of needing some degree of international agreement and cooperation on that legislation, along with measures to make sure the next social media platform abides by the same rules.

That forces them to do what? It's not like it's legal content.

 

[VeevaVee]

I'm not for one second suggesting there aren't swathes of English cretins being racist, but I've seen a number of comments that don't even look English. So it's potentially the whole word raining racist abuse down at these lads as well. Imagine knowing if you feck this chance up that's what you're going to get. It must be so incredibly disheartening, to put it lightly.

 

[Ronaldo's Love Child]

Sometimes I tap out of social media because I am fed up with a 1000 stimuli pecking my head. I can't understand why celebrities are even bothering to read the comments (positive or negative).

Racism is abhorent and should rightly be condemmned but many football fans are neanderthals (remember Beckham being baited by away fans about his sexual predilictions with Victoria?)

If an England player missed a penalty and happened to have ginger hair then you can assume some idiots would be making references about this, likewise someone's weight etc

The blame needs to be pinned on the social media giants as much as the idiots making these vile comments. Nothing will change unless the social media companies want it to.

There were times last season when Rashford received racist abuse from idiots on social media about poor performances for United and there was a creeping resentment that he would call this out rather than own his own shocking form

 

[Neo_Mufc]

We have KYC for betting industry. I'm sure we can do the same for online industry.

The reason the big companies do not want to enforce rules because regardless of what content, the more hits they get the more money they get.

 

[tenpoless]

The social medias need to work together and build the best and fastest sentiment analysis tool. Every post, tweet or comments will be analyzed first. If it's racist, hateful or inappropriate make them visible only for the abusers (and maybe their IP). That way they will think their comments are posted and won't redo them but they're not visible to anyone else. Rather than trying to stop them from posting, trick them into thinking that they have posted.

 

[BFernandes]

This man just told yesterdays racist neanderthals to crawl back under their rocks

This man

 

[Mickeza]

Is there anything Twitter could realistically do regarding authentication that the folks on 4chan or reddit won't find a way around in about 10 minutes?

Not without the state getting involved giving everyone a unique ID and the huge privacy backlash that would entail. Twitter will never do it anyway - it would vastly reduce their user base and therefore revenue.

 

[Chairman Steve]

Completely agree. As with previous hysterical overreaction, the offending socmed comments seem limited to a handful of monkey emojis left by weirdo kids with Asian-sounding handles.

That is something I’ve also noticed too as a weird trend. The words used are broken English and the usernames are Asian sounding. No idea whether it’s Asian-British people in the UK or Asian people in Asia who support England.

Its an odd demographic from your usual suspects who do this like edgy teenagers, unhinged keyboard warriors and your classic young adult English hooligan.

And I wouldnt put it past the Internet for there to be a bunch of trolls on a massive WUM in there too.

 

[Foxbatt]

It’s not so much whether they should, rather that they won’t. Not unless legislation is introduced that forces them to do it, but then you have the problem of needing some degree of international agreement and cooperation on that legislation, along with measures to make sure the next social media platform abides by the same rules.

The problem is that countries like the USA may not accept it. They could accept political stuff thru the UN in days but anti racism, no. Of course then they have to classify what is racism and get it passed thru the Security Council and the General Assembly. Putting the onus on the platforms it's posted on.

 

[Spark]

All for identifying these individuals. However online identification is the wrong way to go about it.

We are lucky that we have the freedom of speech in the UK to post our opinions of the government/politicians/individuals in a fair way. The minute you mandate that social media companies have to have compulsory ID on sign up, the ruling classes of China, Iran, Russia and others with governments who ruthlessly round up individuals based purely on beliefs that we take for granted, will be going to sleep with smiles on their faces. In 2009 when the Iranian election was disputed, it was anonymous posters on Twitter who brought the government crack down to the world's attention. Same thing can be said for the recent Hong Kong protests. On this issue, we cannot give up anonymity due to the actions of a minority.

Racism is abhorrent and needs to be stamped out, but simply introducing identification on Twitter or Facebook will not do anything to get rid. The only proven response is improving education and coherent messaging consistently being laid down from people of influence, i.e. not having Boris Johnson rail against people taking the knee.

I am convinced that current primary school aged children will be far more tolerant in 15 years than the previous. The best response to this would be for the government to announce funding to tackle discrimination by further increasing the education budget, with appropriate measures. In regards to the racists who abused the footballers, get them identified if possible and ban all accounts that posted abuse.

 

[villain]

Everyone mentioning ideas like making it mandatory to produce ID before you can sign up for an account online are missing the point, plus that is a terrible idea for a number of reasons.
This is a society problem, social media is simply a vessel for these people. Nobody logs on twitter or facebook and suddenly becomes racist.
Yes it makes it easier and more visible, but minorities have been saying for decades just how common racism is, only to be not believed.

Seriously, forcing everyone to produce ID is the worst possible solution that will probably (definitely) harm minorities more than the actual people this idea is supposed to target.
All it does is try to sweep racism under the rug rather than face the uncomfortable truth about it, nor does it try to educate people, and it won't eradicate it either. It will just make people feel better about themselves because they don't have to scroll past it anymore, that way they can convince themselves it doesn't exist again.

If you are not surprised at seeing racial abuse online, then just imagine how prevalent it is in society.

 

[Guy Incognito]

Everyone mentioning ideas like making it mandatory to produce ID before you can sign up for an account online are missing the point, plus that is a terrible idea for a number of reasons.
This is a society problem, social media is simply a vessel for these people. Nobody logs on twitter or facebook and suddenly becomes racist.
Yes it makes it easier and more visible, but minorities have been saying for decades just how common racism is, only to be not believed.

Seriously, forcing everyone to produce ID is the worst possible solution that will probably (definitely) harm minorities more than the actual people this idea is supposed to target.
All it does is try to sweep racism under the rug rather than face the uncomfortable truth about it, nor does it try to educate people, and it won't eradicate it either. It will just make people feel better about themselves because they don't have to scroll past it anymore, that way they can convince themselves it doesn't exist again.

If you are not surprised at seeing racial abuse online, then just imagine how prevalent it is in society.

I agree (sadly). We'd reach a point where you would need ID to tweet but not to vote.

It wouldn't surprise me if the majority of abuse on social media last night came from outside England. What gives me hope is the police tracked down someone from Singapore who trolled Maupay and convicted him under local jurisdiction. There's nothing really to prevent the big tech companies from cooperating with the police and punishing trolls.

 

[Trophy Room]

Just vile.

 

[Borys]

Everyone mentioning ideas like making it mandatory to produce ID before you can sign up for an account online are missing the point, plus that is a terrible idea for a number of reasons.
This is a society problem, social media is simply a vessel for these people. Nobody logs on twitter or facebook and suddenly becomes racist.
Yes it makes it easier and more visible, but minorities have been saying for decades just how common racism is, only to be not believed.

Seriously, forcing everyone to produce ID is the worst possible solution that will probably (definitely) harm minorities more than the actual people this idea is supposed to target.
All it does is try to sweep racism under the rug rather than face the uncomfortable truth about it, nor does it try to educate people, and it won't eradicate it either. It will just make people feel better about themselves because they don't have to scroll past it anymore, that way they can convince themselves it doesn't exist again.

If you are not surprised at seeing racial abuse online, then just imagine how prevalent it is in society.

Even if we assume Twitter implementing full ID verification process (which I'm sure they won't anytime soon becaue that would mean a lot of people resigninng), I don't get the idea what happens if we can ID the person? Ostracism will cause more bad than good. A fine maybe? So we're gonna have a thousand reports per cop. Most coming from a country that would consider it 10+ priority. Link to bank account? Surely not.

Is there any serious idea what to do after an abuser has been identified (that can work as a system rather than individual cases, which are happening right now anyway)?

I agree (sadly). We'd reach a point where you would need ID to tweet but not to vote.


It wouldn't surprise me if the majority of abuse on social media last night came from outside England. What gives me hope is the police tracked down someone from Singapore who trolled Maupay and convicted him under local jurisdiction. There's nothing really to prevent the big tech companies from cooperating with the police and punishing trolls.

Isn't that already happening? I think the scale and police resources are the problem/ bottle neck.