It has to stop
This putrid epidemic of online hate cannot be tolerated, excused or ignored for a moment longer.
We’re all guilty in our own way of allowing it to get to this place. By turning a blind eye to its rancid ugliness for so long, we must take our share of the responsibility for the monster that has been created inside our own pockets.
Looking the other way is the easy thing to do.
Pick up the phone, flick through the notifications and tell yourself that none of it really matters. The personal insults, the disgusting language, the vitriolic, poisonous ill will. Ignore it all and dismiss it as nothing more than a symptom of modern day life. Suck it up, move on and resist the burning temptation to respond in kind.
That’s been my own experience of social media ever since I was, let’s just say, ‘encouraged’ by an old boss - and against my better judgement - to open a Twitter account.
It was the equivalent of unlocking the gates of hell and inviting its most vile inhabitants into the living room.
Over time, the skin begins to thicken. Eventually, it becomes almost numb.
And then you go on about your daily business, pretending that none of it actually registers.
It does though. Especially when they’re dragging your own daughter into their twisted, hate filled posts while making the sort of suggestions which make even the thickest of skin crawl.
On reflection, it was at that point that I should have pulled the plug on social media for good. And yet here we are, some years later but finally at the end of our collective tether. Brought to this point by the abhorrence of trolls who appear determined to outdo one another by stooping to new lows. Cowards protected by their anonymity but also by the social media companies who allow them to spew their filth out into the world wide web with complete impunity.
It’s almost as if these people have spent so much time surrounding themselves in hatred that they have become completely desensitised to the sheer awfulness of it all.
It has to stop.
And now that football is leading the charge, following a recent spike in racial abuse aimed at black players on both sides of the border, it’s time for decent people from all walks of life to position ourselves squarely behind the game.
So it is with great pride that today, the Daily Record will stand in solidarity with everyone who faces hate and discrimination online. Our sports social media accounts will be silent from 3pm on Friday 30 April to midnight on Monday 3 May. We stand with football against hate.
As journalists this is not a decision we take lightly but we believe it is important that we add our voice to the calls for greater action and attempt to be a force for good in the communities we serve.
Most of all, it’s time for common decency to prevail. For good people to stand up and to stare this wretchedness down. To demand that those who are profiting from operating these platforms like the wild west discover some sort of moral fortitude before we reach a time and place where it is simply accepted as the new normal. Ask yourself, do you want to live in a world like that?
It has to stop
