Twitter and Facebook have been told to “accept responsibility for preventing abuse” and “go further than you have promised to do to date” amid continued online abuse of footballers.
Some of football’s governing bodies have written a joint letter to Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
They have set out steps they want enforced on the platforms.
“The reality is your platforms remain havens for abuse,” the letter says.
“Your inaction has created the belief in the minds of the anonymous perpetrators that they are beyond reach. The relentless flow of racist and discriminatory messages feeds on itself: the more it is tolerated by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, platforms with billions of users, the more it becomes normal, accepted behaviour.
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“The targets of abuse should be offered basic protections, and we ask that you accept responsibility for preventing abuse from appearing on your platforms and go further than you have promised to do to date.”
The letter is signed by the Premier League, English Football League, women’s professional game, Professional Footballers’ Association, League Managers’ Association, Professional Game Match Officials’ Board and anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out.
“We write to ask that for reasons of basic human decency you use the power of your global systems to bring this to an end,” it says.
Footballers including Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and Axel Tuanzebe, West Brom’s Romaine Sawyers, Chelsea full-back Reece James and Manchester United forward Lauren James have been sent abusive online messages in recent weeks.
On Wednesday, Swansea City midfielder Yan Dhanda was abused following his team’s FA Cup match against Manchester City.
Earlier this week, Premier League referee Mike Dean notified police after his family received death threats.
The Football Association has called for action from the government, which has since stated social media companies could face “large fines” potentially amounting to “billions of pounds” if they fail to tackle abuse on their platforms.
On Wednesday, Facebook told BBC Sport it was “horrified” at the continued abuse and announced what is says are tougher measures to tackle the issue.
Twitter has previously said: “Racist behaviour has no place on our service and when we identify accounts that violate any of the Twitter Rules, we take enforcement action.
“We have proactively engaged and continue to collaborate with our valued partners in football to identify ways to tackle this issue collectively and will continue to play our part in curbing this unacceptable behaviour – both online and offline.”
