Instagram will not take action against the racists who targeted Wilfried Zaha on Saturday - unless he reports them himself.
The Crystal Palace forward, 28, scored one goal and made another in his side’s shock win at Manchester City on Saturday.
After the game he shared a series of racist messages he received and wrote: "This message isn't for me to get a million messages saying we stand with you and it's disgusting or about me getting sympathy.
“I’m not here for all the nonsense that is being done instead of fixing the actual problem!”
But despite insisting they take a zero tolerance approach, Instagram has refused to step in to take action against the culprits.
Screenshots of the messages were taken and sent to the social media firm, alerting it to the authors.
But Zaha has been told he will have to go through his account reporting each of his abusers instead, one by one.
It has reinforced the widespread belief that the social media firm lacks the will to adequately address the issue.
It also comes seven months after Instagram announced a new tool to automatically filter direct message requests containing offensive words, phrases and emojis, so that users never have to see them.
The messages shared by Zaha included terms such as “chimp” and “monkey” along with several ape emojis.
Zaha added: “I don’t mind abuse because nowadays it comes with doing the job I do even though it’s not an excuse, but my colour will always be the real problem.
“It’s fine because I’ll always be BLACK AND PROUD! Speak to me when you actually take this issue seriously.”
