​The FA, Premier League, EFL, FA Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Championship, PFA, LMA, PGMOL, Kick It Out and the FSA are united in a social media boycott from 15.00 on Friday 30 April to 23.59 on Monday 3 May.

Blues Trust will be joining the boycott to show its support for this initiative which is in response to the ongoing and sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many others connected to football.  We will not be using our Facebook and Twitter accounts during the boycott, we would encourage everyone to join the boycott and call on the social media companies to use the technology they have to root out on line racism and discrimination.

The boycott shows English football coming together to emphasise that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate, while highlighting the importance of educating people in the ongoing fight against discrimination.

Trevor Birch, Chief Executive of the EFL said:

“EFL clubs have expressed a clear desire to take a united stand against abhorrent racist, discriminatory, and threatening abuse on social media platforms which we fully support alongside the rest of the football family.”

Sanjay Bhandari, Kick It Out Chair, said:

“Social media is now sadly a regular vessel for toxic abuse. This boycott signifies our collective anger at the damage this causes to the people who play, watch and work in the game. By removing ourselves from the platforms, we are making a symbolic gesture to those with power. We need you to act. We need you to create change. “We need social media companies to make their platforms a hostile environment for trolls rather than for the football family.”

Kevin Miles, Chief Executive of the Football Supporters’ Association said:

“The Football Supporters’ Association is fully behind the game’s efforts to stamp out online hate and discrimination and will join next weekend’s social media boycott. Much media attention has rightly focused on the vile abuse aimed at players, managers and journalists in the men’s and women’s game and we see that aimed at fans groups too. It has to stop”.

“Many of our most active fan groups tell us that they have received disgusting abuse when they are doing nothing more than trying to represent their supporter base. It’s a threat to the very existence of supporter organisations who are run by volunteers in their spare time. As fans we stand with players, managers, referees and all in the game in calling for the social media companies to step up.”

Blues Trust

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