FIFA and Football Manager Join Anti-Abuse Social Media Boycott

The FIFA and Football Manager teams have joined a social media boycott being held across huge swathes of the footballing world in protest against racist abuse and other hate speech, and the lack of action being taken by platforms it’s hosted on.From Friday, April 30 until Monday May 3, the entire English Football League will halt any posts on social media. The boycott is in protest against abuse, and social media companies’ inaction on preventing that abuse.

Both EA Sports and Sports Interactive have today joined the boycott. EA Sports wrote: “We stand strong with English football in the fight against racism, online hate, and any form of discrimination.”

Football is for everyone. Our social channels will be silent from 15:00 (UK) on Fri. April 30 until 23:59 (UK) on Mon. May 3.

No #TopBinsLive Community stream this week. pic.twitter.com/KN0i0T3XMD

— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) April 30, 2021

Sports Interactive wrote, “Today, we join the EFL and English football in a united stand against online abuse. Social media companies must do more to #StopOnlineAbuse. Join us and switch off too, as we collectively demand change.”The boycott follows repeated racist and discriminatory hate speech used towards football players, and the boycott aims to put pressure on social media platforms to do more to clamp down on abuse.

Today, we join the EFL and English football in a united stand against online abuse.

Social media companies must do more to #StopOnlineAbuse. Join us and switch off too, as we collectively demand change.#StopOnlineAbuse pic.twitter.com/sNFCKI6Yp6

— Football Manager (@FootballManager) April 30, 2021

To learn more about the boycott, the Premier League has put together a piece on why it’s taking place, and what the movement hopes to achieve.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.