Wilfried Zaha demands action is taken after showing the vile racist abuse he suffered after Crystal Palace’s win at Man City.
The 28 year old was barraged by horrific messages on social media after helping the Eagles land a famous win at the Etihad after beating the Premier League champions 2-0 with Zaha scoring early on.
It was after the match when the Ivory Coast international suffered the abuse and shared some of the disgusting messages with his 1.1million followers on his Instagram stories.
This may not be massive in the world of football compared to what others have done but to me this milestone is massive as where I’ve come from my only dream was to get to the opportunity to do what I love so I’m so thankful 🙏🏿 I’d like thank God and everyones support ❤️ pic.twitter.com/hdHcKmivBj
— Wilfried Zaha (@wilfriedzaha) October 31, 2021
Included are shocking calls for him to “die” with several messages calling Zaha a “n*****” and he has again called on Instagram to do something about it.
The former Manchester United ace posted screenshots to his social media, while writing: “This message isn’t for me to get a million messages saying we stand with you and it’s disgusting or about me getting sympathy.
“I’m not here for all the nonsense that is being done instead of fixing the actual problem!
“I don’t mind abuse because nowadays it comes with doing the job I do even though it’s not an excuse but my colour will always be the real problems.
“But it’s fine because I’ll always be BLACK AND PROUD!
After the Euro 2020 final penalty shootout, England internationals Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were sent a torrent of sickening messages – with 11 arrests coming as a result.
In 2018, the Zaha revealed he had been abused during a match against Arsenal while earlier in 2021, he said he would no longer take the knee before kick-off because it was “degrading”.
Speaking at the time he said: “Growing up, my parents let me know I should be proud to be black. We should stand tall.
“With taking a knee, sometimes people forget we have to do it.
“It is becoming something we just do. That is not enough for me.”
In February 2021, Facebook has responded to calls to step up efforts to combat racist abuse by announcing new penalties for its users, however questions were immediately raised as to whether the measures go far enough.
English football authorities are still demanding for more action to be taken, by calling on those at the top of social media companies to take personal responsibility.
Instagram said users who send abusive direct messages (DMs) will face the possibility of their account being permanently blocked and Facebook, which owns Instagram, reiterated its commitment to “cooperation with UK law enforcement authorities on hate speech”, including the sharing of personal information.
Part of the recent rise in abuse of footballers has been through Instagram DMs, with a recent court case in Ireland revealing a string of racist messages sent by one user to Ian Wright on the platform. The sharing of verification information, so that perpetrators of the most serious forms of abuse can be identified and prosecuted, has also been a central call from campaigners.
The changes were announced by Facebook’s content policy manager, Fadzai Madzingira, who said she had been horrified by the abuse footballers, including Manchester United’s Axel Tuanzebe, Anthony Martial, Lauren James and Marcus Rashford, had experienced on its app.
“Currently, we will set a specific ban or what we call a block for a set amount of time when someone violates those rules and we extend that time should they continue to do so,” Madzingira said of direct messages. “We’re taking tougher measures on people who violate those rules in Instagram direct messaging, so instead of just extending the time, we’ll be removing the accounts altogether.”
Previous rules allowed Instagram to “permanently remove” accounts that contravened “community guidelines”, including hate speech, but these rules did not cover DMs. Madzingira said the new rules meant a “lower tolerance” for abuse in DMs and that accounts would be closed “more quickly in Instagram direct messaging than anywhere else on the platform”. She did not specify how quickly.
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Twitter users reacted as Wilfried Zaha demands action after showing vile racist abuse he suffered after the Man City win…
@Niklay7: Find em, fine em, ban em. Make a statement.
@FalolaSegun11: Am black & am proud of my colour. Wilfried is great guy, a guy with every great attributes.
@GascoyneDr: What the hell! We seriously still doing this. Well I’d laugh if I was him. He’s peed their fans off that much they hate him – for 3 days until the next match. Sad little world we live in. With all that’s going on they pick on him like that for doing his job.
@MthabisiNgwen13: Soo sad some people still use colour to make themselves feel better.
@LeeMils2: What I don’t understand (maybe iam abit thick) is how someone can racially abuse a black player from a opposing team but worship a black player who plays fir the team they support 🤔
@MWright09: When is this going to stop?
@UpperGwladysBlu: There is a huge pattern developing that any black player that does anything to harm Liverpool/Man Utd/Man City in a game, whether an opposition player or even a LFC/Utd/City player that plays poorly, gets this treatment. These clubs (global) fanbases have a serious racism issue.
@Hibernaculum23: If you’re black and you do well for their team then you’re grand. If you lose form or miss penalties you get racial abuse. If you do well for the opposing team, you get racial abuse. It’s basically “Are you entertaining me? No? Abuse.”
@DLRE1878: Some people really are pathetic. Zaha didn’t make Laporte pull him down. Palace deserved their 3pts. Zaha deserved praise for his performance not abuse!
@sandycohen86: I can’t write a swear word on the comment sections of certain low quality tabloid newspaper’s app yet the most sophisticated tech companies in the world, who serve me adverts for engagement rings if I discuss weddings within 3 feet of my phone cannot block/flag any racist abuse..
Accounts like this fuel that racism by cropping & framing moments and inserting a half-arsed caption with no context. Zaha was walking off the pitch smiling as he was leading 1-0 and the city team mob him 🤷🏼♂️ https://t.co/mejK7SZO6z
— Kevin Clarke (@kevclarke_) October 31, 2021
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