Instagram has announced it will disable accounts of those sending abusive and racist messages online.
The social media giant’s crackdown follows a spate of racial abuse of footballers.
Manchester United players Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Axel Tuanzebe and Lauren James have revealed they were subjected to attacks on social media in recent weeks.
And a man was arrested after West Brom midfielder Romaine Sawyers received what his club called an “abhorrent message”.
Among Instagram ’s new measures is removing abusive accounts to reduce abuse received by direct messages.
Yesterday in the Daily Mirror, Prince William pledged to broker a deal between big tech firms and campaigners after being “shocked and appalled” at the lack of action to tackle an “epidemic of abuse”.
As President of the Football Association, Wills also backed calls for a regular working group between social media firms, the FA and football leagues.
The Duke of Cambridge said: “It makes me so angry people are allowed to act like this. I’ve had enough of the excuses, it has gone on for too long.”
A statement by Facebook, which owns Instagram, said: “Currently, when someone sends DMs that break our rules, we prohibit that person from sending any more messages for a set period of time.
“Now, if someone continues to send violating messages, we’ll disable their account. We’ll also disable new accounts created to get around our messaging restrictions, and will continue to disable accounts we find that are created purely to send abusive messages.”
Instagram insists it took action on 6.5 million pieces of hate speech, including in direct messages, between July and September of last year.
The social media platform says 95% were found before being reported. Facebook said it will work with British police on abuse, vowing to respond to valid legal requests for information.
Its content policy manager Fadzai Madzingira said: “I am horrified they have to deal with that sort of abuse. As a company we take it very seriously. We’ve always had rules around people who abuse our community standards in Instagram direct messaging, specifically.”
He said the crackdown will ensure a lower tolerance for abuse in direct messaging. Facebook said it will work with other firms and football associations to stop online abusive messages.
