Sam Allardyce demands Government action to stamp out racist abuse on social media as he reveals West Brom forward Callum Robinson received 70 offensive messages from 20 different Instagram accounts after Chelsea win
- Callum Robinson is just the latest player to be racially abused on social media
- Striker received 70 offensive messages after Baggies’ 5-2 win over Chelsea
- He was interviewed by police after 20 Instagram accounts bombarded him
- West Brom boss Sam Allardyce has called for the government to intervene
- Robinson is the third Baggies player to suffer racial abuse this season
Sam Allardyce has called for Government intervention to stamp out the racist abuse aimed at footballers on social media.
The West Bromwich Albion boss revealed his forward, Callum Robinson, had been interviewed by police after receiving 70 separate messages from 20 different Instagram accounts.
Allardyce said Robinson was the third Albion player to be racially abused this season, after Romaine Sawyers and another player who does not wish to be named.
Callum Robinson was subjected to racial abuse online after West Brom’s win over Chelsea
Robinson shared an image of the abuse he received on Instagram which has been reported
Liverpool trio Sadio Mane, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita were the latest to be targeted after their team’s Champions League defeat by Real Madrid.
West Brom have contacted Instagram about Robinson but Allardyce wants higher authorities to take control.
‘The solution can only be brought about by people in the hierarchy of the government and those in these businesses (social media companies),’ said Allardyce.
‘People hiding behind false sites and posting obscene messages, in the world we live in today and the technology, is simply not good enough.
Baggies manager Sam Allardyce has demanded government action to tackle the abuse
‘The club have done their best – they’ve written to Instagram, but I feel we’d get a feeble response, not a good one.
‘The people running these sites, making trillions of pounds, have the technology to know where it’s happening and what’s going on. They are clearly not doing enough at the moment.’
Following the horrific abuse aimed at Robinson, a Facebook spokesperson – who revealed that a number of comments and accounts had been removed – issued the following statement: ‘We don’t want discriminatory abuse on Instagram or Facebook. We share the goal of tackling it and want to hold people who share it accountable.
‘We do this by taking action on content and accounts that break our rules and cooperating with law enforcement when we receive a valid legal request. We also recently announced that we’ll take tougher action when we become aware of people breaking our rules in DMs and we have built tools to help protect people, including the ability to filter out abusive comments.
Robinson dinked home West Brom’s fifth to round off Saturday’s stunning win at Chelsea
‘This work is ongoing and we are committed to working with the industry, government and others to collectively drive societal change through action and education.’
The abuse followed one of the best games of Robinson’s career, in which he scored twice to help relegation-threatened Albion to a 5-2 win at Chelsea – comfortably their best result of the season.
Allardyce added: ‘He’s a strong character, but it’s hurt him. The police have been brilliant in interviewing him and the club have done their best.’
