LONDON: Death threats. Racist abuse. Sexist slurs. And social media accounts allowed to stay active even after spreading bile.
English football has reached breaking point with players, coaches, referees and officials aghast at the ongoing proliferation of hate aimed at them on Instagram and Twitter.
A week that began with the Premier League’s most high profile referee reporting threats of physical harm to police and more Black players targeted by racist users, drew a pledge by Instagram to clamp down on hate but undercut by leniency shown toward abusers.
It’s why English football leaders have taken their concerns to the top of the social media giants, uniting for an unprecedented joint letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter counterpart Jack Dorsey that demands the platforms stop being “havens for abuse” by taking tougher action to eradicate the viciousness.
“Your inaction has created the belief in the minds of the anonymous perpetrators that they are beyond reach,” read the letter whose signatories included officials from the English Football Association, the Premier League, Women’s Super League and the organizations representing players, managers and referees.
One of world football’s leading anti-discrimination officials believes it could be time to log off until meaningful action is taken.
“What they probably need to do now is to have their own boycott,” said Piara Powar, executive director of the FARE network. “Can you imagine if Premier League clubs, even symbolically for one day this year called for a boycott of social media use by their fans, didn’t post anything for a day, and then kept doing that until the platforms showed some serious intent?
“Because there’s no question, although the issues in football are probably a scratch on the back of what Facebook is facing globally, if the level of engagement that football brings ... they just wouldn’t want to lose that.”
But the platforms that allow clubs and players to engage with fans — and monetize sponsorships — can also be used as a force for good.
Manchester United and England striker Marcus Rashford showed just that by using Twitter in particular in the last year to campaign against child poverty. He utilized his ever-growing following of more than four million to pressure the government into providing free school meals during the pandemic.
“It wasn’t here 10-15 years ago and we’re privileged to have it, to connect with people all over the world with different cultures and religions,” Rashford told broadcaster Sky Sports. “To see people use it in a negative way is stupid. Hopefully they can sort out that.”
Rashford knows how disturbing the platforms can be as he was targeted with racist messages along with United teammates Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial after a defeat to Sheffield United last month.
Rashford wants racist users “deleted straight away.” Facebook, which owns Instagram, this week pledged to disable accounts that send abusive direct messages as part of a push to show it would act on racism. This is being enforced almost two years after players in England boycotted social media for 24 hours. And it became clearer when Facebook was pressed on the policy that only a repeated number of unspecified racist messages would see a user banned.
“That isn’t really a position that’s acceptable to many people,” Powar said.
Instagram’s lack of a zero tolerance approach meant the account that racially abused Swansea player Yan Dhanda after an FA Cup loss to Manchester City on Wednesday will remain active, with only some messaging functions disabled for an unspecified period of time.
“We think it’s important people have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes,” said a statement from Facebook owner Instagram. “If they continue to break our rules this account will be removed.”
That does not go far enough for Swansea, which said it was “shocked and surprised by the leniency shown” over such toxic conduct.
“It is appalling that Facebook cannot empathize more with the victim of such offensive messages,” the south Wales club said in a statement on Saturday.
The police appear more determined to intervene and prosecute offenders who have hurled hatred online, beyond stadiums which are closed to fans during the pandemic. The government is also introducing legislation — the online safety bill — that could see social media companies fined for failing to protect their users.
The letter from the English football authorities to Dorsey and Zuckerberg asked for an improved verification process that ensures users provide accurate identification information and are barred from registering with a new account if banned. The need to submit identification documentation has been cautioned against by those highlighting how anonymity on the platforms can assist engagement by victims of domestic abuse, whistleblowers and those trying to communicate from danger zones.
Social media can still do more to detect abuse on their services.
“The failure to take down and challenge the worst type sort of racism, sexism we’ve seen has really left them untouched,” said Powar, whose FARE network investigates discrimination in football for governing bodies. “They just don’t seem to see it as a priority because there’s no question that they have the technical capability.”
Even staying off the sites yourself isn’t enough to escape being targeted with threats of violence, as managers and referees have discovered.
Referee Mike Dean contacted the police after receiving death threats through family accounts after sending players off in matches last week.
“Online abuse is unacceptable in any walk of life,” said Mike Riley, a former Premier League referee who is general manager of England’s refereeing body, “and more needs to be done to tackle the problem.”
Newcastle manager Steve Bruce has been alarmed by the menacing messages aimed at him via the account of son Alex, a former Hull and Ipswich defender.
“It’s really horrible stuff,” Bruce said. “Things like someone saying they hope I die of COVID.”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta still has accounts but doesn’t log in himself anymore because of the vitriol.
“I prefer not to read because it would affect me personally much more the moment somebody wants to touch my family,” Arteta said. “The club was aware of it and we tried to do something about it and ... can we do something about it? That’s what I am pushing for.”
It’s why players still take a knee before kickoff, as they have done since June as part of the Black Lives Matter campaign.
“This is us taking a stand against racism,” said Aston Villa defender Neil Taylor, who is trying to encourage more fellow British Asians into the sport. “I don’t think we’ll ever fully eradicate it, but we’re now trying to create a society which calls people out on it.”
English soccer at breaking point over abuse on social media
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English soccer at breaking point over abuse on social media
- English football has reached breaking point with players, coaches, referees and officials aghast at the ongoing proliferation of hate aimed at them on Instagram and Twitter
SRMG, Naif Alrajhi Investment to power regional media and advertising ecosystem
- Partnership with Phi Advertising enhances Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising by combining Phi and SMS assets, offering diversified across the MENA region
- Partnership with Veyron Marketing to elevate the regional landscape by providing clients access to SMS’s dynamic portfolio of innovative digital formats, branded content, and experiential advertising solutions
RIYADH: SRMG, the MENA region’s largest integrated media group, and Naif Alrajhi Investment, a leading Saudi investment firm with a diversified portfolio and a track record of leading portfolio companies in the media sector regionally, announced Wednesday a strategic partnership designed to advance innovation and growth across the media and advertising industries. This partnership focuses on two strategic pillars: Expanding Phi’s Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising footprint and partnering with Veyron Marketing to drive innovation in media and marketing.
The agreement brings together SRMG’s newly launched SRMG Media Solutions (SMS), a next generation data-driven advertising entity representing a portfolio of renowned brands including Asharq Al-Awsat, Asharq News and Asharq Business with Bloomberg, Arab News, Hia Magazine and Thmanya, with Naif Alrajhi Investment’s diversified assets.
Through the partnership, Phi, a key player in the Middle East’s Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising sector, offering a dynamic range of solutions from traditional billboards to cutting-edge digital displays, will amplify its reach, supported by SMS’s cross-platform content distribution across digital, social, TV, and print channels.
Moreover, Veyron Marketing, a leading player in Saudi Arabia’s advertising industry, renowned for its innovative marketing solutions and robust media planning and buying capabilities, will gain access to SRMG Media Solutions’ (SMS) dynamic portfolio of advertising offerings, including innovative digital formats, branded content, and experiential advertising.
The partnership is underpinned by a shared vision to foster innovation, expand digital capabilities, and unlock new commercial opportunities for both parties. Together, SMS and Veyron bring a deep understanding of the Saudi market, further strengthened by SRMG’s extensive global reach enabling them to drive long-term value for advertisers.
SRMG CEO Jomana R. Alrashid stated, “This partnership is a convergence of vision, impact and capability. By uniting Phi’s comprehensive presence and Veyron’s operational expertise, combined with SRMG Media Solutions’ services and reach of over 170 million users, we are creating a dynamic ecosystem that empowers brands to engage audiences with unmatched relevance and impact.”
Naif Saleh Alrajhi, Chairman & CEO of Naif Alrajhi Investment, commented, "This partnership reflects our shared commitment to delivering innovative advertising solutions, creating exceptional opportunities for both regional and global advertisers. By partnering with SRMG and SRMG Media Solutions with our own assets, we are positioning brands to engage with audiences in new and meaningful ways. The strength of Naif Alrajhi Investment lies in our diversified portfolio and strong presence across key sectors, which allows us to offer unique, high impact opportunities that go beyond traditional media. This Partnership not only leverages the incredible growth in Saudi Arabia but also aims to shape the future of the media and marketing landscape globally."
The partnership underscores SRMG’s expansion through SMS, which leverages a global audience of over 170 million users across platforms such as Asharq News, podcasts, and experiential activations. This, coupled with Naif Alrajhi Investment’s diversified portfolio, positions the parternships to drive economic growth and redefine regional advertising standards.
For brands seeking to leverage this partnership, visit https://srmgms.com/ or contact partner@srmgms.com.
‘No one else will’: Sudan’s journalists risk all to report the war
- According to Sudan’s journalist union, at least 28 reporters have been killed since conflict began in April 2023
- Journalists say huge efforts are needed to inform the world about the horrors unfolding in Darfur, where accounts of sexual violence, ethnic massacres, and mass displacement persist
CAIRO: On a mountain near Sudan’s border, journalists climb rugged slopes, phones held high, hoping to catch a faint signal from neighboring Chad to send stories amid the war’s two-year communications blackout.
Journalists say efforts like these are their only way to tell the world about the horrors unfolding in Darfur, where accounts of sexual violence, ethnic massacres and mass displacement continue to emerge.
Since fighting erupted between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, at least 28 reporters have been killed, according to Sudan’s journalist union.
Dozens more have been detained and tortured, while many have been displaced and cut off from electricity, water and Internet.
Noon, a 35-year-old freelance journalist who requested a pseudonym for her safety, said she was forced to flee the West Darfur capital of El-Geneina after reporting on ethnically motivated mass killings committed by the RSF and its allied militias in 2023.
Her stories on the massacres, where UN experts say up to 15,000 mostly Massalit people were killed — leading to genocide accusations against the RSF — made her a target.
“They raided my family’s house. They took all my equipment, my cameras, everything,” she said.
By the third raid, she knew she had to go, and fled with her family to the eastern state of Gedaref, nearly 1,800 kilometers (1120 miles) away.
But even there, she was not safe.
While reporting in a displacement shelter, she said she was arrested by the army, accused of collaborating with the RSF and forced to sign a pledge to obtain government approval on every story.
According to Reporters Without Borders, since the start of the war more than 400 journalists have fled the country, which last year was second only to Gaza in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ tally of reporters killed.
Yet some remain on the ground, working in secret with nothing to their name.
In the North Darfur town of Tawila, where the UN says 180,000 survivors of nearby RSF attacks are sheltering, 30-year-old photojournalist Ibrahim works undercover to report on those trapped between famine and brutal violence.
“No one can know what I do,” Ibrahim, who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his identity, told AFP.
“If they find out, they’ll arrest me or take my phone,” he said.
Last July, RSF fighters detained him in El-Fasher and accused him of being an army spy. He said they tortured him for five days and confiscated his equipment, documents and money.
Since then, he has sent his family out of Darfur and relocated to Tawila, leaving his cameras behind. His mobile phone is all he has left.
Even before the war, Sudan was a hostile environment for journalists, consistently ranking near the bottom of the Reporters Without Borders’s Press Freedom Index.
Since the fighting began, conditions have only worsened. Many journalists have been forced to flee, while others remain trapped across the country, struggling to survive.
In the central state of Al-Jazira, the country’s breadbasket prior to the war, veteran reporter Youssef, 62, now raises goats and grows sorghum to support himself.
“The last salary I received was at the beginning of 2024,” he told AFP by phone from state capital Wad Madani.
“My newspaper moved operations to Cairo, but I still send them reports — when I can get a signal.”
Youssef, whose name has also been changed, lost all contact with his editors and the outside world for months while the RSF controlled the city.
In February 2024, fighters stormed his home.
“They tied my hands, blindfolded me, shackled my feet,” he recalled. “No food. No toilets. I was detained for three days.”
He said when he told those interrogating him he was a journalist, a fighter said: “That is the biggest crime.”
He was freed only after a local community leader signed a guarantee pledging that Youssef would remain under house arrest. He did not leave until the army recaptured Wad Madani in January.
Both Youssef and Ibrahim say they have received no protection from local or international media organizations.
Still, Ibrahim continues, turning a coffee shop in Tawila — powered by a single public solar panel — into a makeshift newsroom.
“Who else will tell the world what’s happening in Darfur if we leave?” he told AFP, crouching to reach his phone, plugged into an overloaded extension cord.
“No one else will tell these stories. No one can imagine the atrocities happening here.”
Oversight board voices concern about Meta nixing fact checks
- Indipendent top court said changes to the handling of hateful and potentially harmful posts was made “hastily,” said Meta should mitigate the resulting human rights perils
- In January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would introduce “Community Notes,” a feature similar to X’s, to police the accuracy of posts across its platforms in the US
SAN FRANCISCO: Independent monitors voiced concern Tuesday that Meta’s recent decision to ditch fact checks on their Facebook platform could endanger human rights.
Meta’s surprise announcement in January that it was ending its US fact-checking program triggered scathing criticism from disinformation researchers who warned it risked opening the floodgates for false narratives.
Now, the board that serves as the top court for Meta content moderation decision says the social media giant’s announcement about policy and enforcement changes to the handling of hateful and potentially harmful posts was made “hastily,” according to a statement by the Meta Oversight Board released Tuesday.
“People have the right to express controversial opinions,” said board co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
“People should also be safe from harm.”
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg released the news in a sweeping policy shift that analysts saw as an attempt to appease then US President-elect Donald Trump, who has equated checking facts with censorship.
As Meta rolls out the moderation changes globally, it is essential that the tech giant mitigate human rights perils that may result from a reduction or absence of fact-checking, according to the board.
The oversight board made 17 recommendations, including that Meta assess the effectiveness of Community Notes compared to third-party fact-checking, “particularly in situations where the rapid spread of false information creates risks to public safety.”
Meta had employed third-party fact checkers, AFP among them, to expose misinformation disseminated by the platform.
Zuckerberg said Meta’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram, would instead use “Community Notes similar to X” in the United States to police accuracy of posts.
Community Notes is a crowd-sourced moderation tool that X, formerly Twitter, has promoted as the way for users to add context to posts, but researchers have repeatedly questioned its effectiveness in combating falsehoods.
“You wouldn’t rely on just anyone to stop your toilet from leaking, but Meta now seeks to rely on just anyone to stop misinformation from spreading on their platforms,” Michael Wagner, from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told AFP when Meta announced the change.
“Asking people, pro bono, to police the false claims that get posted on Meta’s multi-billion dollar social media platforms is an abdication of social responsibility.”
While Meta has vowed to honor the board’s rulings on appeals of its decisions to take down or leave up posts, the tech company does not have to abide by its policy recommendations.
US judge blocks Trump’s shutdown of government-funded news broadcasts
- Judge ordered Trump administration to return employees to work
- Adviser Kari Lake accused US Agency for Global Media of being “irretrievably broken” and biased against Trump
NEW YORK: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to halt efforts to shut down Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, whose news broadcasts are funded by the government to export US values to the world.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of US Agency for Global Media, ordered the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts.
USAGM placed over 1,000 employees on leave and told 600 contractors they would be terminated after the agency abruptly shut down the broadcasts in March.
The ruling was a “significant victory for press freedom,” said Andrew Celli, an attorney representing VOA employees in the lawsuits.
USAGM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
VOA was founded to combat Nazi propaganda at the height of World War Two, and has become a major international media broadcaster.
Congress has funded and authorized the broadcasts to provide an “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” source of news in other nations and export the “cardinal American values of free speech, freedom of the press, and open debate,” Lamberth wrote. Congress made the broadcasts mandatory and did not allow the executive branch to unilaterally terminate or defund them, he ruled.
Trump adviser Kari Lake announced the shutdown on March 15, placing nearly all USAGM employees on leave, saying the agency was “irretrievably broken” and biased against US President Donald Trump.
Lamberth rejected USAGM’s arguments in court that it had not made a “final decision” on the future of the broadcasts and that the lawsuits should be handled has a series of “employment disputes” with terminated workers.
“It strains credulity to conclude the USAGM is ‘still standing’ when its 80-year-old flagship news service, VOA, has gone completely dark with no signs of returning,” Lamberth wrote.
Lamberth heard arguments from lawyers for VOA employees and the Trump administration on Thursday. He asked several questions probing Trump’s statements indicating that VOA’s news coverage was too critical of America and personally of him.
“I thought that one of the strengths of Voice of America was that it had the nerve to tell the truth about America,” Lamberth said.
Lamberth also pointed out that Trump had signed stopgap government funding measure last month that appropriated funds for USAGM. Trump had not vetoed the spending bill or asked Congress to rescind that funding, Lamberth said.
As a group, USAGM had about 3,500 employers and an $886 million budget in 2024, according to its latest report to Congress.
Italy’s far-right League faces complaint over ‘racist, Islamophobic’ AI-generated images
- Opposition parties have filed a complaint with the communications watchdog, accusing the party of using AI-generated images as part of a strategy to ‘incite hate’
- ‘If denouncing crimes committed by foreigners means ‘xenophobia’, perhaps the problem is not the word but those who use it to censor debate’ — League spokesperson
LONDON: Italy’s far-right League party has been referred to the country’s communications watchdog after opposition parties filed a complaint over “racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic” images generated by artificial intelligence and shared on social media by deputy prime minister and party leader Matteo Salvini.
The complaint was submitted to Agcom, Italy’s communications regulatory authority, on Thursday by the center-left Democratic Party, along with the Greens and Left Alliance. It alleges the images published by the League contained “almost all categories of hate speech,” according to The Guardian, which first reported the story.
“In the images published by Salvini’s party and generated by AI there are almost all categories of hate speech, from racism and xenophobia to Islamophobia. They are using AI to target specific categories of people — immigrants, Arabs — who are portrayed as potential criminals, thieves and rapists,” said Antonio Nicita, a PD senator.
Nicita also criticized the decision to blur the faces of the supposed victims, calling it “deceptive” and accusing the League of intentionally misleading users into believing the images were real.
Emilio Borrelli, an MP with the Greens and Left Alliance, said the images were “part of their strategy to create fear among citizens” and “incite hate.”
Over the past month, dozens of apparently AI-generated images have been posted across the League’s social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram and X. Many depict men of colour, often armed with knives, attacking women or police officers.
A spokesperson for Salvini’s party confirmed some of the pictures were digitally generated but insisted: “The point is not the image. The point is the fact,” adding the posts were “based on true reports from Italian newspapers.”
However, AI forensic experts have stated all the images in question bore clear signs of being artificially generated. They also noted that while platforms are required to label AI-generated content, in most cases automatic detection tools failed to do so.
In one of the posts cited in the complaint, a mother and father in Islamic dress appear to be shouting angrily at a young girl — a portrayal the complainants say fuels racial and Islamophobic stereotypes. The newspaper cited in the post, Il Giorno, makes no reference to the family’s religion and does not include any photographs. The only detail given was that the child had attended Arabic language classes.
As The Guardian reported, the use of AI-generated imagery by far-right parties across Europe has surged in recent months. The targets are often refugees from conflict zones such as Syria, Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as people from other minority backgrounds. These depictions frequently invoke the debunked “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which falsely claims that immigration is part of a plot to erode European identity and culture.
Salvini, who has capitalized on rising refugee arrivals in Europe to maintain a prominent role in Italian politics and advocate for stricter immigration policies, has frequently made headlines for inflammatory remarks, including calling immigrants — often men — “dogs and pigs.” In late 2024, he was acquitted of charges of kidnapping and dereliction of duty after judges ruled that the evidence presented by prosecutors was insufficient to convict him. The case stemmed from a 2019 incident in which Salvini, then interior minister, refused to allow a Spanish migrant rescue ship to dock in an Italian port, leaving those on board stranded at sea for 19 days.
Asked whether the League was aware the images could incite hate, a party spokesperson said: “We are sorry, but our solidarity goes to the victims, not the perpetrators. If denouncing crimes committed by foreigners means ‘xenophobia’, perhaps the problem is not the word but those who use it to censor debate. We will continue to denounce, with strong words and images, what others prefer to ignore.’’
If Agcom finds the League’s content in violation of regulations, it could act under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which allows it to order the removal of posts, shut down accounts or impose fines on social media platforms for failing to moderate harmful content.
