Football in Berkshire, like much of the footballing community, joined the social media boycott from 3pm on Friday 30th April to midnight on Monday 3rd May.
“It’s simply unacceptable that people across English football and society continue to be subjected to discriminatory abuse online on a daily basis, with no real-world consequences for perpetrators,”.
Edleen John, director of international relations, corporate affairs and co-partner for equality, diversity and inclusion at the FA.
But, we realise that one weekend of boycott isn’t enough to eradicate those who troll, abuse and vilify others, we, therefore, want to highlight the things you can do and the places you can go in order to report those who think it’s acceptable to do so.
The FA itself has a section on it’s website dedicated to identifying and reporting discrimination. Closer to home, our county FA: Berks & Bucks FA offer a Report It form ‘Discrimination has no place in football. If you’ve seen it or heard it please, Tell Us, We’ll Tackle It.’
Kick It Out have been at the forefront of the campaign on tackling racism and discrimination in football for almost thirty years and have worked tirelessly to enable, facilitate and work with the football authorities, professional clubs, players, fans and communities in order to eradicate discrimination. You can also report an incident on their website.
Meanwhile on social media, there are steps you can take in order to report tweets and accounts for example. We’ve hypothetically used the Women’s Football in Berkshire account to explain how to do this.
Blocking and reporting an account. 
Blocking and reporting a tweet. 
Reporting an issue with a tweet.
You can also do the same on Instagram and Facebook.
We, at Football in Berkshire, will continue to use social media to promote the brilliant clubs in our county in a positive manner. But enough is enough and we took a stand. Now, more than ever is the time to continue that mantra and be confident in reporting when you see individuals and accounts who subject others to discriminatory abuse. Equally, more needs to be done by platforms, like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, in the first place to stamp it out, goals highlights are swiftly removed but online abuse remains prolific.
