Facebook to Change Direct Messaging Rules After Online Abuse of Premier League Footballers

Sieeka Khan, Tech Times 10 February 2021, 12:02 pm

Facebook is horrified at the continued online attack on footballers and now has announced that they will add tougher measures to solve the issue.

The giant social media site is now changing the rules governing direct messaging on Instagram, a social media platform that it also owns. It will also disable the accounts of those users found to have constantly sent abusive private messages on Instagram.

Facebook's new measure on online abuse

Fadzai Madzingira, the UK head of content policy, said that it was saddening to see the continued abuse on the social media platforms.

Madzingira told BBC that he is horrified at the type of abuse that footballers have to deal with on the basis of who they are. He added that they are disappointed to see that behavior play out offline and online.

He added that this is the reason why they are making the announcements about taking tougher measures to go after accounts that are violating their community standards and their goals within Instagram direct messages.

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Numerous Premier League footballers including Manchester United's Marcus Rashford and Axel Tuanzebe, West Brom's Romaine Sawyers and Chelsea full-back Reece James have been subjected to online attacks in weeks.

The Football Association has called for action from the government, which has stated that social media companies could face fines amounting to billions of pounds if they do not do anything to tackle the online abuse on their respective platforms.

BBC sports editor Dan Roan asked Madzingira whether Facebook enabling online abuse, he denied it. He said that the platforms allow communities of people to connect on things that they love. If they need to have a conversation about hate, it needs to be not what is currently happening on the platforms.

Possible changes on Instagram and Facebook

Past and present football players have called for social media platform users to be required to give verification documents when creating accounts so that they can be traced more effectively if they send abusive messages and if they breach rules.

Facebook said that this new measure would prove challenging in communities where these types of documents would not be readily available, according to ESPN.

Madzingira added that if they were to insist on using government ID or passport details they would be barring access to the people who use their platforms in order to build communities, so they are very conscious that they allow for that access.

Facebook claims that it took action on 6.5 million pieces of hate speech on Instagram between July 2020 and September 2020, including within direct messages which are harder to monitor because of privacy rules.

Madzingira said that till this day, if someone violated the rules in Instagram direct messages, they would set a specific ban or a block for a certain amount of time and extended that period, should users continue to violate.

Facebook is announced that they will now be removing those types accounts, should they continue to violate within the Instagram direct messaging, according to EuroSports.

Facebook added that it would not reveal how many offences would trigger the removal because offenders could use that information to cheat the system.