Joining forces with other supporter groups to fight online abuse

The AST has been leading a Social Media campaign to help fight online abuse - this will be ongoing all season.

The campaign, called 'Blow The Whistle On Abuse', encourages all supporters of all clubs to report abuse when they see it. 

The Euro 2020 final, saw online abuse come to the forefront once again, when three England players, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and of course one of our own, Bukayo Saka, received abuse after their penalty misses. 

Twitter published a blog post that can be found by clicking here. The main takeaways were:

• 99% of the accounts suspended were not anonymous.
• Given the international nature of the Euro 2020 Final, it was no surprise to see that the Tweets removed came from all over the world. However, while many have quite rightly highlighted the global nature of the conversation, it is also important to acknowledge that the UK was, by far, the largest country of origin for the abusive Tweets removed on the night of the Final and in the days that followed.
• Twitter have an automated tool scanning for abusive words, which kicked in immediately to identify and remove 1622 Tweets during the Final and in the 24 hours that followed.
• While our automated tools are now able to detect a majority of the abusive Tweets removed, they also take action from reports.

It was the last point that encouraged us to act.

It is important fans know why and how to report abuse and for the wider world to see that the majority of football fans are great people. 

It's very easy to see abuse and think 'someone else will probably report it' - but this is the season to take responsibility: if you see it, report it. 

It was fantastic to see so many supporter groups from across the country get involved and working together. See below for a selection of tweets issued by other groups, all using the assets published by the AST. 

The following details are taken from the Football Supporters' Association page here and we urge all true football supporters to add their voices and help stamp out abuse and discrimination:

If you have experienced or witnessed discrimination at a football match at any level, or on social media, you can report it to Kick It Out through their online reporting form or via their reporting app available on both iOS and Android. You can report hate crimes to your local police force here.

You can also report posts to the respective social media channels by using the following links: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok | Snapchat | YouTube

The AST has also worked with Arsenal on the campaign and welcomed Arsenal including a section on reporting abuse in their recent comms that can be found by clicking here.