Liverpool Women winger Rinsola Babajide suffers racist and sexist abuse on social media; Facebook, who own Instagram, tell Sky Sports News: "We have removed a number of comments from Rinsola Rabajide's post for breaking our rules, and we are continuing to investigate"
Thursday 8 April 2021 21:26, UK
Liverpool Women winger Rinsola Babajide has highlighted the racist and sexist abuse she suffered on Instagram on Thursday.
Babajide posted about her new boots on her social media account and a user replied saying, "football is only for men…", followed by the use of a racial slur.
The comment was reported to Instagram and is no longer visible on the post, which Babajide screenshotted and posted on her social media channels with the caption: "What is wrong with people."
In a subsequent post, Babajide showed a screenshot of a message she had received from someone who had tried - and failed - to get her abuser reported on Instagram.
Babajide has to deal with abuse on social media "weekly", Sky Sports News has been told.
Facebook, who own Instagram, told Sky Sports News: "There is no place for discriminatory abuse on Instagram. We have removed a number of comments from Rinsola Rabajide's post for breaking our rules, and we are continuing to investigate.
"We don't allow attacks on people based on their protected characteristics, which includes race, religion, nationality or sexual orientation."
Swansea have been joined by Birmingham and Rangers in a week-long social media blackout to take a stand against online racist abuse.
Championship side Swansea were the first side to take the stand following a spate of "abhorrent" racial abuse on social media platforms, with three of their first-team players subjected to racist abuse since February.
Birmingham announced on Thursday evening the club "stands in solidarity" with Swansea and will not publish any content across their men's and women's channels for a period of seven days.
Meanwhile, Rangers became the first side in Scotland to boycott social media in response to online abuse and discrimination.
Rangers say they are concerned with the daily racist abuse their players have to endure, with captain James Tavernier telling Sky Sports News before the Old Firm game on March 21 that every black player at the club has been abused on social media this season.
Swansea's players join a growing list who have been subjected to online abuse in recent weeks, with Brentford's Ivan Toney also abused following Tuesday night's goalless draw with Birmingham.
Manchester United quartet Anthony Martial, Axel Tuanzebe, Marcus Rashford and Fred have also been targeted, with the latter saying "we cannot feed that culture".
Arsenal's former forward Thierry Henry has also described racism on social media as "too toxic to ignore" and disabled all of his accounts following the recent instances on the platform.
Last month, the UK's football policing lead Detective Chief Constable Mark Roberts said the response of social media companies in assisting the police to identify abusers has been "woeful".
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