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Manchester United players Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire were the most abused players on Twitter last season, a report has found.
Analysis carried out by British media regulator Ofcom states that of 2.3 million tweets in the first half of last season, found nearly 60,000 abusive posts, affecting seven in 10 top-flight players. Half of that abuse was directed at just 12 individuals – eight from the red half of Manchester. Ofcom is preparing to regulate technology companies under new Online Safety laws aimed at protecting users. “These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game,” Ofcom group director for broadcasting and online content Kevin Bakhurst said. “Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort.
“Social media firms needn`t wait for new laws to make their sites and apps safer for users. When we become the regulator for online safety, tech companies will have to be really open about the steps they`re taking to protect users. We will expect them to design their services with safety in mind.” The report identified two peaks in the frequency of abusive tweets. The first came on the day Ronaldo rejoined Manchester United – August 27 2021 – generating three times more tweets than any other day (188,769), of which 3,961 were abusive.
Twitter said it also removed more than 38,000 abusive tweets, with a spokesperson telling Britain`s PA news agency they were “committed” to combatting abuse and did not tolerate harassment on grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. Recently, Harry Maguire was booed by fans at the stadium when Manchester United were on their pre-season tour. If that`s not all, the Portuguese is also rumoured to be wanting an exit from the Old Trafford club. Despite the club and manager ten Hag quashing the news of his exit, Ronaldo`s `absence` from the pre-season tours has put the Red Devils in a difficult situation. Fans have been left disgruntled by the way the owners have backed the new gaffer and with the new season kicking-off soon, the black clouds around Old Trafford don`t seem to be moving away that quickly.
(With inputs from AFP)
