Swansea City take stand against online abuse

Swansea City has chosen to take a club-wide stance in the battle against abuse and discrimination of all forms on social media.

From 5pm today (April 8) all first-team players, those in the academy professional phase (under-23s and under-18s), Swansea City Ladies, our Community Trust, senior club staff and official club channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat) will not post any content for a period of seven days.

This decision has been taken as a result of conversations between senior club staff, players and management.

As a football club, we have seen several of our players subjected to abhorrent abuse in the past seven weeks alone, and we feel it is right to take a stand against behaviour that is a blight on our sport, and society at large.

We will always be unwavering in our support of our players, staff, supporters and the community that we proudly represent, and we are united as a club on this issue.

We also want to stand with players from other clubs who have had to endure vile discrimination on social media platforms.

As a club we are also acutely aware of how social media can impact on the mental health of players and staff, and we hope our strong stance will highlight the wider effects of abuse.

Additionally, chief executive Julian Winter has sent a letter to Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, and Facebook’s founder, chairman and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg to reiterate the club’s stance and desire to see social media companies introduce more stringent policing and punishments for those guilty of the appalling and cowardly abuse that has sadly become far too common.

Something has to change soon and, as always, we welcome any support from fellow clubs, players, fans and executives as we all continue to work together in this important cause.

This club-wide stance will cover our matches against Millwall this Saturday (April 10) and our trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday, April 13.

We would like to inform supporters that club news will continue to be posted via our official website during this period, before a return to social media activity at 5pm on Thursday, 15 April.

Swansea City would like to thank its sponsors and partners for their support on this matter, as well as the EFL.

“As a close and diverse group of players, this is something we all feel extremely passionate about,” said Swansea City captain Matt Grimes.

“Three of our squad have been racially abused in recent weeks and, as a squad and club, we wanted to take this stance as we again call on those at the forefront of social media companies to implement the change that is needed now and in the future.

“I find it staggering that we are still talking about racism and abuse of this kind. We are acutely aware of the pressures within football at this level, but it shouldn’t be underestimated as to how such levels of abuse can affect someone.

“Social media has provided so many positives over the last decade, however, the sickening and vile abuse that we are seeing on a daily and weekly basis is wholly unacceptable, and we hope that this stance across the club will be supported by everyone.

“We are a family, and we will always stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, whether that’s on the pitch or helping to fight injustice off it.”

Enough is enough.