British police arrest 11 people over online racial abuse of England players after Euro 2020
August 5, 2021, 5:35 am

British police arrest 11 people over online racial abuse of England players after Euro 2020

England national team

The Sky News reported police have arrested 11 people in connection with the online racial abuse of England players after the Euro 2020 final. British police

According to the Sky News, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were targeted by racist social media posts after missing penalties against Italy last month.

It said, the age of those arrested so far ranges from 18 to 63.

It added, three live in London and two in Christchurch, Dorset. The others are from Runcorn, Cheshire; Sale, Greater Manchester; Folkestone, Kent; Reading; Shrewsbury and Worcester.

They have all either been released under investigation pending further enquiries or bailed to return at a later date.

The UK Football Policing Unit said that of 207 social media posts deemed to be criminal, 34 of the accounts were in Britain and 123 in other countries. The details of those outside the UK have been passed to the relevant countries.

Social companies have yet to provide information about the other 50 account holders.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs' Council football policing lead, said: "There are people out there who believe they can hide behind a social media profile and get away with posting such abhorrent comments.

"They need to think again."

He said they have investigators "proactively seeking out abusive comments in connection to the match" and will arrest those posting them "if they meet a criminal threshold".

British police

It comes as new data shows more than two in five Premier League players received abusive messages on Twitter last season.

The players' union worked with online hate detection company Signify to monitor levels of abuse on the platform and they found that 20% of the abuse was directed at just four players, although they did not name them.

More than six million posts were analysed, with a deeper analysis of 20,000 messages finding 1,781 abusive messages sent from 1,674 accounts.

Just over half of the abusive messages were traced to UK-based accounts and a third of the verified abuse accounts professed an affiliation to a UK club - either as a fan, a member, or a season ticket holder.

Twitter was notified of the abuse but Signify found that only 56% of the racially abusive posts were removed, with one fifth of these deleted by the account holder rather than by Twitter.

Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), said: "The time has come to move from analysis to action.

"The PFA's work with Signify clearly shows that the technology exists to identify abuse at scale and the people behind offensive accounts.

"Having access to this data means that real-world consequences can be pursued for online abuse. If the players' union can do this, so can the tech giants."

A Twitter spokesperson said more than 1,000 tweets were removed from the platform in the hours after the Euro 2020 final, most of which had been spotted using Twitter's own technology.

"It is our top priority to keep everyone who uses Twitter safe and free from abuse. While we have made recent strides in giving people greater control to manage their safety, we know there is still work to be done.

"We continue to take action when we identify any tweets or accounts that violate the Twitter rules. We welcome people to freely express themselves on our service, however, we have clear rules in place to address threats of violence, abuse and harassment and hateful conduct."

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Source: skynews
Image source: AP-skynews

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.