Former Arsenal and France international striker Thierry Henry has announced that he is withdrawing from social media in response to a series of racist and cyber-attacks.
In a message to his 2.3 Twitter followers on Friday, 43-year-old Henry described the problem as “very serious” and “difficult to ignore.”
He stated that he would return to social media only if the owners of social media were subjected to copyright (proprietary) scrutiny and action against racism.
He also called for better action.
” You can easily open a page on social media; The same is true of intimidating others and spreading racist messages. Surprisingly, these people are not even identified, “said the French footballer.
“Violence and racist messages on social media do not even take time to be ignored,” he said.
Thierry Henry has won the Premier League twice with English club Arsenal between 1999 and 2007.
Last September, he revealed that he had experienced racist attacks while playing for Arsenal and the French national team.
“We want the victims to understand that we are sick. That’s enough, ”said Henry.
“I have been withdrawing from social media since tomorrow morning,” he tweeted on Friday.
“From now on, I will only return to social media when the owners of these social media sites, like the copyright holders, take the following strict steps and take action against racism.”
“Until this situation changes, I will delete all my social media pages. I hope the change will come soon, ”he said.
Social media companies have repeatedly said that they are doing a lot to control the problem.
Twitter has recently announced the launch of Kick It Out to control similar social media attacks.
Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, said it had eliminated 6.6 million hate speech last year alone.
