By Daniel Nyaga
Ezequiel Becerra. PHOTO| AFP
Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry announced that he shall be quitting all social media until there is more done to tackle racism and harassment online.
In a statement shared with his combined 14.8 million followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, the French striker said he would quit the platforms until a solution is found to the on-going harassment.
“Hi Guys, from Saturday morning I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright.” read his message.
According to the former world cup winner, the sheer volume of racism, bullying and resulting mental torture is too toxic to ignore. He further called 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,” he added. “Until this changes, I will be disabling my accounts across all social platforms. I’m hoping this happens soon.”
Recently, Twitter has been under increasing pressure for allowance of abusive language and harassment on its platform. Users have been victims of bullying and harassment on the platform mostly from anonymous accounts.
Henry, France’s all time top goal scorer has been vocal on racism in football as well as citing his struggles against racism as a high profile black footballer. Thierry Henry is the latest celebrity to quit social media citing abuse as the reason.
Twitter released a statement last week highlighting, “there is no room for racist abuse” on its platform and that it was working to ensure that users who are guilty of the above should face dire consequences.