Harry Kane tells racist social media abusers 'you're not an England fan and we don't want you'
Sejal Karia reports on the racist abuse England players have suffered after their defeat in the Euro2020 final
Harry Kane has told those who send abuse on social media: "You're not England fans and we don't want you."
The England captain directly addressed the torrent of racist abused faced by Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after England's Euro 2020 final loss.
"Three lads who were brilliant all summer had the courage to step up & take a pen when the stakes were high," the captain wrote.
"They deserve support & backing not the vile racist abuse they’ve had since last night."
The captain's condemnation follows similar outrage across the political spectrum, from royalty, and the rest of the footballing world.
The Prime Minister said racist abusers should "crawl back under a rock"
"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," Mr Johnson said at a briefing on Monday.
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Home Secretary Priti Patel also tweeted her "disgust" at the abuse faced.
But some comments from the government have been criticised following both the PM and Ms Patel's stance on players taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter.
Retweeting Ms Patel's condemnation of the abuse, England star Tyrone Mings wrote: "You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens."
Last month, Mings said the home secretary was "one of many" who "oppose... or refuse to defend" national team players taking the knee before games.
Both the Prime Minister and Priti Patel have previously described the action as “gestures”.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner accused Boris Johnson and the Home Secretary of giving licence to the racists who abused the England players, following their stance on taking the knee.
While Sir Keir Starmer said the PM's words of condemnation "ring hollow". The Labour leader said those who sent racist abuse should be "ashamed of themselves" and added:
"This is about leadership and I’m afraid the Prime Minister has failed the test of leadership because whatever he says today about racism, he had a simple choice at the beginning of this tournament in relation to the booing of those who were taking the knee."
England manager Gareth Southgate described the racist abuse as "unforgivable".
"It’s just not what we stand for," he said during a press conference following England's loss to Italy on penalties.
"We have been a beacon of light in bringing people together, in people being able to relate to the national team, and the national team stands for everybody and so that togetherness has to continue."
"We have shown the power our country has when it does come together and has that energy and positivity together."
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The Duke of Cambridge has said he was "sickened" by the abuse.
William, who is head of the FA, said: "It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour. It must stop now and all those involved should be held accountable."
The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall tweeted message of support featuring a quote by Prince Charles celebrating the UK's diversity.
England footballer Reece James said racism "is not acceptable" and is "definitely not the answer".
On Twitter, he wrote: "We learn more about the society when we lose, far more than we learn when we win."
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The Football Association said it was "appalled" by the abuse.
A spokesperson for the FA said: “The FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media.
“We could not be clearer that anyone behind such disgusting behaviour is not welcome in following the team.
"We will do all we can to support the players affected while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible.
“We will continue to do everything we can to stamp discrimination out of the game, but we implore government to act quickly and bring in the appropriate legislation so this abuse has real life consequences.
"Social media companies need to step up and take accountability and action to ban abusers from their platforms, gather evidence that can lead to prosecution and support making their platforms free from this type of abhorrent abuse."
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UEFA also "strongly" condemned the "disgusting racist abuse".
"We stand by the players and the English FA’s call for the strongest possible punishments," a statement on Twitter read.
Former England defender Rio Ferdinand said “social media platforms became the toxic and racist safe place for the ignorant and cowardly rats to start spouting their disgusting feelings.”“Hiding behind the safety blanket that is social media platforms these disgusting people can continually abuse our England players knowing that they are safe to be able to stay anonymous.”
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Twitter said they had removed over 1,000 abusive tweets since the final.
A spokesperson said: "The abhorrent racist abuse directed at England players last night has absolutely no place on Twitter.
"In the past 24 hours, through a combination of machine learning based automation and human review, we have swiftly removed over 1,000 tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating our rules - the vast majority of which we detected ourselves proactively using technology.
"We will continue to take action when we identify any Tweets or accounts that violate our policies. "
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Facebook said the company "quickly removed comments and accounts directing abuse at England’s footballers last night" and would "take action against those that break our rules".
"No one thing will fix this challenge overnight, but we’re committed to keeping our community safe from abuse," a Facebook company spokesperson said.
The PFA said those behind the abuse were abusing "all of us".
"Racist abuse causes trauma. It will impact the targeted players, their teammates, and we know it will also affect their peers. It causes hurt to all the other fans who view online hate, and it will inevitably live with the next aspiring generation of young players.
"Unfortunately, the abusive messages were all too predictable."
The Metropolitan Police also condemned the “unacceptable” abuse, adding it will be investigating the “offensive and racist” social media posts.
Shadow Sport Secretary Jo Stevens told ITV News that platforms needed to ban those posting the abuse and "get them off their platforms never to be allowed again".
She said the government should speed up the process of regulating social media firms adding "until we put the measures in place to make social media companies take responsibility for what goes on on their platforms, we will see this again and again and again."
Labour are calling for the government to make social media "take responsibility" for the "despicable" racist abuse.
A peak audience of 31m tuned into the Euro 2020 final on Sunday across BBC1 and ITV for the match that went all way. The official Twitter account for the England men’s and women’s national teams offered support to the targeted players.
It said in a statement: “We’re disgusted that some of our squad – who have given everything for the shirt this summer – have been subjected to discriminatory abuse online after tonight’s game.
“We stand with our players.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan called on social media companies to do more to hold to account those responsible for sending online abuse.
He wrote on Twitter: “There is absolutely no place for racism in football or anywhere else.
“Those responsible for the disgusting online abuse we have seen must be held accountable – and social media companies need to act immediately to remove and prevent this hate.”
Football players and celebrities also stood by the England team and called out the "disgusting" racist comments on social media while a petition to to ban racists from all football matches in England for life had gained more than 300,000 signatures by Monday afternoon.