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Willian has played in
England since 2013, having previously been with Chelsea
England since 2013, having previously been with Chelsea
Arsenal midfielder Willian has revealed that he has been sent racist abuse on social media.
The 32-year-old Brazil international posted screenshots of offensive comments sent to him on Instagram.
“We cannot and will not let racist and hateful abuse become a normalised part of the game,” Arsenal said.
Anthony Martial of Manchester United has faced harassment on Instagram in the past week and Eddie Nketiah of Arsenal has been abused on Twitter.
A spokesperson on Twitter said the account responsible for publishing the harassment of Nketiah was “permanently suspended”
It was the second time Martial has been targeted in three weeks, though teammates Marcus Rashford and Axel Tuanzebe have both faced online bigotry.
Manchester United claimed that their stance was unchanged from a statement released at the end of January where they said they were “disgusted” by the violence and encouraged “to strengthen measures to prevent this kind of behaviour” by social media sites and regulatory authorities.
Willian, in three separate posts, shows his Instagram followers direct message threads from two different users sending racial threats.
Alongside the posts, the former Chelsea player wrote: “Something needs to change! The fight against racism continues.”
An Arsenal spokesman added: “To drive this behavior out, we all need to work together. This includes clubs, governing bodies, supporters, media and politicians; but it requires social media companies’ assistance and commitment.”
“We commit to using our voice and network to strengthen measures and action taken by relevant authorities to punish those responsible for this abuse which affects us all. Where any individual is found to have an Arsenal membership, they will be banned.”
Arsenal Chief Executive Vinai Venkatesham said on Thursday that social media harassment aimed at players and officials was “the biggest problem in the game at the moment”
After his family got a variety of threats, including death threats and violent tweets, Premier League referee Mike Dean contacted the police.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, said earlier this month that it will not block a person who racially assaulted Yan Dhanda of Swansea.
Following his side’s FA Cup loss by Manchester City on 10 February, British Asian Dhanda, 22, was harassed on Instagram.
Facebook said in that situation that it had temporarily prevented the user from posting messages to Instagram.
Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger, speaking on 7 February, said he was exposed on social media to “immense” racial violence.