Black footballers playing in British leagues have recently complained about the escalation of racial abuse they receive on social media platforms.

This has now come to the attention of Facebook, with the company making its disgust and revulsion known to all.

“I’m horrified at the type of abuse that people, especially those footballers have to deal with on the basis of who they are, whether it’s their race or their religion or their gender and as a company, we’re disappointed to see that sort of behaviour that plays out offline also playing out on our platform,” said Facebook’s Head of Content policy, Fadzai Madzingira.

“It’s why we’re making the announcements today about taking tougher measures to go after accounts that are violating our community standards and our goals within Instagram direct messages,” Madzingira continued.

Manchester City star footballer Raheem Sterling, who is Jamaican born, has talked fulsomely about the abuse both he and other black footballers have received online. The hate levelled at them is vicious and threatening.

Only last year, Sterling questioned whether social media giants had the will to confront this issue.

“I don’t know how many times I need to say this, but football and the social media platforms need to step up, show real leadership and take proper action in tackling online abuse.”

“ The technology is there to make a difference, but I’m increasingly questioning if there is the will,” Sterling wrote.

It looks like these companies are finally coming around. A Twitter spokesperson said: “Racist behaviour has no place on Twitter and we strongly condemn it. We continue to take action on any account that violates the Twitter Rules. We welcome people to freely express themselves on our service, however as outlined in our Hateful Conduct Policy, account holders cannot promote violence against, threaten or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity or other protected groups.”

“We have proactively engaged and continue to collaborate with our valued partners in football to identify ways to tackle the issue collectively. We remain focused on proactively actioning hateful content – now more than one-in-two tweets are identified and removed without reports.”

“We want to reiterate that abusive and hateful conduct has no place on our service and we will continue to take swift action on the minority that try to undermine the conversation for the majority. We will continue to play our part in curbing the unacceptable behaviour – both online and offline,” the Twitter statement indicated.

Last week, Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford received a torrent of racial abuse on social media which is now being investigated by the police.

He had this to say on the matter: “Humanity and social media at its worst. Yes, I’m a black man and I live every day proud that I am. No one, or no one comment is going to make me feel any different. So sorry if you are looking for a strong reaction, you’re just simply not going to get it here.”

“I’m not sharing screenshots. It would be irresponsible to do so and as you can imagine there’s nothing original in them.”

A review by the anti-racist body, “ Kick It Out” revealed a 42 per cent increase in reported of discrimination during the 2019/20 season at the professional level. This includes a 53 per cent increase in reports of racial abuse and a 95 per cent rise in reports of abuse based on sexual orientation.

Facebook owns Instagram which is now stepping up its sanctions on racists using its platform.

“We’ve always had rules around people who abuse our community standards in Instagram direct messaging specifically. Currently, we will set a specific ban on what we call a block for a set amount of time when someone violates those rules and we extend that time should they continue to do so.

“What we’re announcing today is that we’re taking tougher measures on people who violate these rules in Instagram direct messaging, so instead of just extending the time, we’ll be removing the accounts altogether,” said Fadzai Madzingira.