England's Lionesses decided to cease their pre-match anti-racism gesture of taking the knee, opting for a different approach in addressing racism. This decision follows incidents of racist abuse directed towards defender Jess Carter on social media. Fare's executive director Piara Powar expressed disappointment with this choice, emphasizing the importance of continuing the powerful anti-racist act. He urged regulators like Ofcom to enforce the Online Safety Act, which mandates social media platforms to protect users from harmful content, including racism. Powar called for immediate actions to address the ongoing issues in social media abuse.
The taking of the knee is a powerful anti-racist act and this England team have shown leadership across Europe in taking it for so long.
Powerful actions are needed right now, to deal with the issues that are being played out as we speak.
The racial abuse of Jess Carter highlights again how toxic some social media users are, raising the question of the responsibility of the platforms to identify and remove harmful abuse.
The act came into force in the autumn and Ofcom gained powers to enforce in March. There doesn't seem to be any public information available on action taken against the platforms thus far.
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