Bukayo Saka, Shaka Hislop slam Facebook, Twitter’s response to racism

LONDON - Soccer stars past and present believe that social media companies need to improve their game when it comes to tackling racist abuse on their platforms.

Black England soccer players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were the target of a torrent of racist abuse on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter following England's defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday.

Shaka Hislop, former West Ham United and Newcastle United goalkeeper and founding member of the Show Racism the Red Card campaign group, told CNBC "Squawk Box Europe"on Friday that social media companies need to do more, and accused them of" hiding selfishly. "

The former footballer said that social media companies base their value on the number of users, regardless of whether the users' accounts are real or not, because this increases their bottom line or the price of their shares.

"That to me is not a sufficient excuse to continue allowing racism on their platforms in the way that they have," he said.

"Their responsibility to the wider community goes far beyond their valuations or what their shareholders can get from their companies," Hislop said. "They play a role in our culture, they play a role in our communities and they have to recognize that."

Saka, a 19-year-old Arsenal midfielder, said in a statement Thursday that he does not want any child or adult to receive the "hateful and hurtful messages" that he, Rashford and Sancho received this week after missing penalties for England. .

"I knew instantly the kind of hate I was about to receive and that is a sad reality that their powerful platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages," he said.

"There is no place for racism or hatred of any kind in football or in any area of ​​society and for the majority of people to come together to shout these messages, take action and report these comments to the police and expel the hatred By being nice to each other, we will win, "Saka said.

Sancho wrote on his Instagram profile on Wednesday that he saw the racist abuse after the game and that "it is nothing new." Meanwhile, Rashford said he will not apologize for who he is.

A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC on Monday that the company acted swiftly to crack down on racial abuse targeting England players on Instagram, which it owns.

"No one should have to suffer racist abuse anywhere, and we don't want it on Instagram," the spokesperson said. "Last night we promptly removed comments and accounts targeting England footballers and will continue to take action against those who break our rules."

However, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri admitted Thursday that its algorithms allowed some racist comments and emojis to remain on the platform.

"We have technology to try to prioritize reports, and we were wrongly marking some of these as benign comments, which they are not," Mosseri said on Twitter in response to a BBC reporter.

"Since then the problem has been addressed and the publication has all this context."

A Twitter spokesperson said racist abuse has no place on its platform, adding that it had used software and human reviewers to delete more than 1,000 tweets and permanently suspend multiple accounts.

The British government aims to crack down on big tech companies for the proliferation of harmful content. The proposed legislation known as the Online Safety Bill would give media regulator Ofcom the power to fine companies up to £ 18 million ($ 24.9 million) or 10% of their global annual revenue, which is greater, for infractions.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson promised on wednesday ban anyone who posts racist abuse online from football matches, but did not give a time frame.

Hislop said the law will need to be enforced once it is implemented.

"I believe that the application of laws and other laws guides public behavior," he said. "Public behavior dictates changes in culture, and that's what we need here."

- Additional reporting from CNBC's Ryan Browne.