“Another matchday and more abhorrent racial abuse suffered by one of our players”
Son Heung-min has become the latest Premier League player to suffer racist abuse on social media. The Tottenham star started and scored in his side’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, and was also involved in a controversial incident that saw a Man United goal ruled out in the first half.
In the comments and replies under both a tweet from Spurs’ official account and Son’s Instagram post after the game, the South Korean midfielder was subjected to racist insults and abuse that the North London side has described as “abhorrent.”
The club released an official statement that read: “Another matchday and more abhorrent racial abuse suffered by one of our players.
“This has again been reported to the platforms and we shall now undertake a full review alongside the Premier League to determine the most effective action moving forward.
“We stand with you, Sonny.”
Another matchday and more abhorrent racial abuse suffered by one of our players. This has again been reported to the platforms and we shall now undertake a full review alongside the Premier League to determine the most effective action moving forward.
We stand with you, Sonny. pic.twitter.com/fNBpSykJJo
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) April 11, 2021
Son is the second Spurs player in a week to be the victim of racism online. After the club’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle on 4 April, Davinson Sanchez also received racist messages on social media.
Sadly this is the sort of story that has become a regularity. On Saturday Raheem Sterling received racist abuse on Twitter after Manchester City lost 2-1 at home to Leeds, and in recent weeks West Brom’s Callum Robinson, Brentford’s Ivan Toney, and the Liverpool trio of Alexander-Arnold, Naby Keita and Sadio Mane have all been on the receiving end of racism on social media.
Championship clubs Swansea and Birmingham, along with Scottish champions Rangers, have all announced that they will be boycotting social media for a week to combat abuse, and at the end of March Thierry Henry announced that he was leaving all social media because of the racism and abuse that exists on the platforms.
Swansea City has chosen to take a club-wide stance in the battle against abuse and discrimination of all forms on social media.
From 5pm today we will not post any content on our official social media channels for seven days.#EnoughIsEnough
👉 https://t.co/rmHXB0j2l7 pic.twitter.com/fKqKqHl8Ag
— Swansea City AFC (@SwansOfficial) April 8, 2021
According to the BBC, Twitter has said that it is “committed to Kick It Out’s initiative to tackle online hate, and look forward to continuing these discussions and developing solutions with our partners in football”.
Meanwhile Instagram has said that it took action against 6.6 million pieces of hate speech between October and December last year. The Facebook-owned platform will “take tougher action when we become of aware of people breaking our rules in DMs.”
