Former Arsenal and Barcelona star Thierry Henry announced on Friday that he will be stepping away from social media over racism claims, adding that his stand will continue until online abuse is controlled similar to copyright infringements.
Henry hopes that by doing so, he will inspire others to stand up against racist abuse and bullying online.
He took to his social media pages that has a total of 14.8 million followers to announce his stand.
“The sheer volume of racism, bullying, and resulting mental torture is too toxic to ignore,” he wrote, calling for greater “accountability” online. It is far too easy to create an account, use it to bully and harass without consequence, and still remain anonymous,” Henry said.
He added, “Until this changes, I will be disabling my accounts across all social platforms. I’m hoping this happens soon.”
The Frenchman, who won the World Cup with France in 1998, said he was inspired by former athletes, such as boxer Muhammad Ali, who was outspoken about social issues and topics such as the Vietnam War.
He said, “Muhammad Ali didn’t want to go to war, he didn’t wait to see if everyone was with him, it’s what he felt. Please understand that I’m nowhere near that caliber, but I said to myself: ‘Thierry, that’s how you feel, you feel strongly about it.’ That’s what I’m going to do. To show that, obviously, I’m not happy with how things are going on social media.”
According to Henry, throughout his career, racism in soccer had been an issue and he even spoke about the abuse he received as a player.
The football star said, “Things are a tiny bit better in the stadium but now the problem has moved on social media, where people can hide.”
“You can always say: ‘Oh, it’s difficult to trace who it is.’ You close that account, they can open another one. So you only move the problem. That problem has been going on for a long time and this is not an attack on anyone. It’s about making the place safer.”
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