The Duke of Cambridge today led the condemnation of vile racist abuse aimed at England stars after their Euro 2020 defeat to Italy.
Anti racism campaigner Hope Not Hate found 1,300 tweets using racist slurs or monkey and banana emojis posted during Sunday’s final – more than twice as many as during any other England game in the tournament.
Ministers said online hate was being tackled through the Online Safety Bill but that is years from becoming law.
An avalanche of sickening bile was posted on social media sites after the 3-2 loss on penalties that followed a 1-1 draw at Wembley.
Much of it was aimed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who bravely stepped up but failed to score from the spot.
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Prince William posted on Twitter : “I am sickened by the racist abuse aimed at England players. It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour.
“It must stop now and all those involved should be held accountable.”
England manager Gareth Southgate stormed: “For some of [the players] to be abused is unforgivable. It’s just not what we stand for. The national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told tonight’s Downing Street press conference: “To those who have been directing racist abuse at some of the players, I say shame on you and I hope you will crawl back under the rock from which you emerged.”
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Earlier, he tweeted: “Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”
The Mirror’s Stop Online Hate campaign calls on tech firms to tackle abuse including life bans for repeated or particularly offensive behaviour.
Today we found a string of racist comments still online on Instagram and Twitter up to 12 hours after they were posted.
A Twitter account in the name of “Norf” replied to a post on the official England account with “Three n*****s missed. F*** blm.”
Another anonymous account posted a string of vile messages including “N*****s dragged this country down” and “#SayYesToRacism” which were still online 13 hours later.
On Bukayo Saka’s instagram account, a disturbing number of accounts posted monkey emojis and racism.
One comment by guy.s12 - “When are you going back to Africa” - had been up for eight hours and had 160 “likes”.
Estate agent Savills launched an investigation after a Twitter account that appeared to belong to one of its Manchester employees tweeted “n*****s ruined it for us”.
A YouTuber from Worcester claimed his Twitter account was hacked and denied tweeting: “Marcus Rashford that MBE needs burning ya fake.
“Pack them bags and get to ya own country” just minutes after the striker missed his penalty.
Hope not Hate said: “The n-word, monkey and banana emojis had only been recorded a handful of times in the previous games, but at the end of the game tonight, it exploded.”
Mr Johnson’s intervention was slammed by former England star Gary Neville, who accused him of previously “promoting” racism.
The PM initially refused to condemn fans who booed England players “taking the knee”. He and Home Secretary Priti Patel have described the action as “gestures”.
Mr Johnson was also blasted for a 2018 article he wrote saying Muslim women in burkas looked like “letterboxes”.
TV pundit Neville said today: “When we get racist abuse after a football match, I expect it unfortunately because it exists, it’s actually promoted by the Prime Minister, who called Muslim women letterboxes.”
He went on: “Gareth Southgate a few weeks ago told us that the players were taking the knee to promote the equality, and it was against racism.
“The Prime Minister said it was OK for the population of this country to boo those players. It starts at the top.”
England defender Tyrone Mings hit out at Patel on Twitter after she posted that she was “disgusted” by the abuse.
He replied to her: “You don’t get to stoke the fire by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ and then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.”
Ministers say the Online Safety Bill will force web firms to clean up the internet and help prevent web attacks.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said it would mean firms could be fined up to 10% of global revenue.”
But Commons insiders said it could be 2024 before it reaches the Statute Book because it faces months of MPs’ scrutiny before a final version appears for debates, amendments and votes.
Labour fears the Bill would not help stop the sort of abuse aimed at players since Sunday night’s final anyway.
Shadow Culture Secretary Jo Stevens said: “Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have the means to stop this hatred and yet they decide to do nothing.”
The Home Affairs Select Committee is poised to demand a crackdown.
Chair Yvette Cooper said it was “shameful that Instagram has still failed to remove racist posts after 15 hours”.
Downing Street denied Neville’s accusation the PM promoted racism and said it was “not accurate” that Mr Johnson and ministers suggested it was fine to boo players taking the knee.Facebook, which owns Instagram, and Twitter said they removed racist posts.
