Monkey emojis were sent to the Reds duo on Instagram following the Champions League quarter-final loss in Spain
Liverpool duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita have been subjected to vile racist abuse on social media following the Reds’ 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
England right-back Alexander-Arnold was at fault for two of Madrid’s goals in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie, while Keita was withdrawn before half-time as Jurgen Klopp tweaked his tactics.
That led to both players receiving messages containing monkey emojis on their most recent posts on Instagram, with Liverpool calling for social media platforms to take more action against offenders.
What have Liverpool said?
In a statement posted on their official website, the Reds wrote: “Once again we are sadly discussing abhorrent racial abuse the morning after a football game. It is utterly unacceptable and it has to stop.
“LFC condemns all forms of discrimination and we continue to work with our inclusion partners through our Red Together initiative to campaign against it.
“As a club, we will offer our players any and all support that they may require. We will also work with the relevant authorities to identify and, if possible, prosecute those responsible.
“We know that this will not be enough until the strongest possible preventative measures are taken by social media platforms and the regulatory bodies which govern them.
“The current situation cannot be allowed to continue and it is incumbent on all of us to ensure that it does not.”
What other cases of racism has there been in football recently?
Unfortunately, racism continues to be an issue in football, particularly on social media, with users, often anonymously, targeting players with abuse.
Brentford striker Ivan Toney, meanwhile, received racist abuse on Instagram on Tuesday following his side’s 0-0 draw with Birmingham City.
This comes just days after Valencia walked off the pitch during their Liga clash with Cadiz after claims that defender Mouctar Diakhaby was racially abused by an opponent, Juan Cala.
The likes of Antonio Rudiger, Reece James, Axel Tuanzebe, Anthony Martial and Davinson Sanchez have all also suffered racist abuse in 2021 and are worryingly just a few of the players that have been subjected to online hate.
What is being done about it?
Facebook, the owners of Instagram, claimed back in February that tougher sanctions would be brought in to address the issues of racism, vowing to disable accounts that are seen to violate their terms.
In addition, the UK government has warned that criminal sanctions could be considered for social media companies who fail to tackle abuse.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said, as quoted by BBC Sport: “I certainly am prepared to get tough.
“If you fail to enforce your own terms and conditions, stand up to your duty of care, then we will impose fines and we’ll take the power to impose very large fines – indeed up to 10% of global turnover.
“For some of these big tech firms that’s running to billions of pounds.
“As an ultimate pullback, I really don’t want to have to do this, but we do reserve the right to criminal sanctions for senior management as well, in the most egregious cases.”
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