Tottenham player shares vile racist abuse he received online

Tottenham Hotspur have given their support to player Ryan Sessegnon after he shares vile racist abuse that he received online.

The 20-year-old midfielder, currently on loan at Bundesliga outfit Hoffenheim, received the abusive messages on Monday night, shortly before the offending profile was quickly removed from Instagram.

He was left disgusted by what he had just seen, however said he is not surprised that it continues to take place and that the social media platforms aren’t doing more to prevent this from happening.

He wrote on Instagram: “Honestly unbelievable. The craziest thing is I’m not even surprised anymore. Disgusting.”

His parent club have since offered their support on Twitter.

“Everyone at the Club is with you, Ryan Sessegnon,” Tottenham’s official Twitter account said.

“We are proud of the rich ethnic diversity that exists across our communities, fans, staff, and players.

“We are driven by inclusion and equality for all, and nobody should have to endure such repulsive abuse.”

Everyone at the Club is with you @RyanSessegnon.

We are proud of the rich ethnic diversity that exists across our communities, fans, staff and players.

We are driven by inclusion and equality for all and nobody should have to endure such repulsive abuse. pic.twitter.com/Tliv3rdRtI

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 3, 2020

Troy Deeney reveals which vile insults are deemed NOT offensive by social media sites and accuses them of profiting from racism.

The PFA recently commissioned a study that shows more than 3,000 explicitly abusive messages were sent to 44 high-profile current and former players during Project Restart.

Disappointingly, 56% of all the discriminatory abuse identified during the study was seen as racist.

The Watford player has now echoed Sterling in questioning whether there is a will from the big social media companies to take any action against the racism on their sites.

The duo have expressed their frustration with the lack of proactive action to stop the abuse on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many other sites.

Watford captain Troy Deeney has accused social media companies of profiting from racist abuse on their platforms.

— Sky Sports (@SkySports) October 24, 2020

“Do these companies even want to change things? Do they want to stop the abuse?” Deeney wrote in his column in The Sun.

“If a high-profile black player such as Raheem Sterling is experiencing racial abuse, then everyone piles in and that drives traffic, which increases their advertising and profits.

“If I scroll down my Instagram replies, the tenth one down features a racist emoji – which is not unusual.

“So I follow the protocol, which is to block the user and report the message under the category of ‘hate speech and symbols.’ Then I am told that an emoji with a monkey and a banana is not considered racist.

“I’ve even reported being called a ‘black c***’ and been told that isn’t hate speech either. They need to change their algorithms to reflect what are obviously racist posts – but do they even want to?”

A spokesperson for Facebook has told Sky Sports News: “Facebook does not benefit from hate.

“Over the last few years, we’ve invested billions in safety, tripled the size of our safety and security team to 35,000, and built artificial intelligence technology to proactively find and remove this type of content.

“Discrimination is a societal problem, and we need collective action. We don’t want any form of discrimination on our apps and have recently partnered with Kick It Out on its Take A Stand campaign, where we announced a series of action-focused initiatives centred around reporting and education.

“We’ve also introduced technology to give people more control over their experience, including a setting for public figures to prevent people they don’t know from messaging them. To learn more about how you can take a stand, report discrimination, or access educational resources, add 07432140310 to your WhatsApp contacts and message ‘hi.’”

A spokesperson for Twitter has told Sky Sports News: “Racist behaviour has no place on Twitter and we strongly condemn it. We continue to take action on any account that violates the Twitter Rules.

“We welcome people to freely express themselves on our service. However, as outlined in our Hateful Conduct Policy, account holders cannot promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, or other protected groups.

“We have proactively engaged and continue to collaborate with our valued partners in football to identify ways to tackle this issue collectively. We remain focused on proactively actioning hateful content – now, more than 1 in 2 Tweets are identified and removed without reports.

“We want to reiterate that abusive and hateful conduct has no place on our service and we will continue to take swift action on the minority that try to undermine the conversation for the majority. We will continue to play our part in curbing this unacceptable behaviour – both online and offline.”

Fans reacted as Tottenham player shares vile racist abuse he received online…

If they’re given the resources to do it then I’m sure they would oblige.

— Junior (@Brad_Flange) November 3, 2020

Disgusting from people that do this, I don’t understand what they get out of it, say nothing and change your morales

— Joe (@joecm00s) November 3, 2020

To all the fans still
commenting ‘small’ or ‘banter’ club, now is not the time, we are in standing in unison with @RyanSessegnon thank you.

— ⚽️ Football Creed Bratton ⚽️ (@FootballCreedB) November 3, 2020

Brilliantly said! ?? Woke up this morning and saw the mindless abuse that was aimed at Ryan. Sadly I’m not surprised anymore! On a positive note, the Spurs family only have love and support for you Ryan!

— Matt Allen (@MattCOYS81) November 3, 2020

Absolutely disgusting that this happens/ still happens, its inexcusable regardless of who the victim is/what team they play for.

— hospur13 (@aliho71) November 3, 2020

We all stand with Ryan. Anyone who abuses one of us, abuses us all, whatever our gender, colour, beliefs.
?

— Barbara Mahle (@barbaramahle23) November 3, 2020

Absolutely disgusting. No place in the world for racism. Can not believe this has happened. Hold your head high @RyanSessegnon

— Scott Aaron (@ScottAa73128131) November 3, 2020

Absolutely horrendous! We are with you @RyanSessegnon ?

— The Paxton one! (@dsizzle71) November 3, 2020

Excellently put, NO ONE should have to be on the receiving end of that kind of hate speech.

— TEE ᗪI᙭IE ??????????? (@TeeDixie) November 3, 2020

This needs to be policed by social media companies

— Ian Brazier (@Ian_P_Brazier) November 3, 2020

Living these times and we can’t see us as equals. Racism shows one of the worst faces of humanity and no one deserves it.

— Dani Dani (@Dani_Dani_93) November 3, 2020

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