By Lucy Caulkett-
Social media like twitter faces the continuous challenge of eradicating abuse from its platform after an England football player’s girlfriend has spoken out about the “toxic” and “scary” abuse she received on social media.
Jack Grealish’s girlfriend , Sasha Attwood, has complained of receiving death threats on social media by unsavoury personalities for no good reason . Countless complaints of abuse on social media have been made over the years, calling for desperate intervention from governments to put social media giants in their place.
Ms Attwood is likely to be the victim of abuse by people who are jealous of her for various reasons, including her status as a well known footballer’s girlfriend. Some of her abusers may even know her from her early youth.
She is not the first public figure to be subjected to such levels of abuse. Piers Morgan, Susanna Reid, Diane Abbott, Meghan Markle, and many other public figures have spoken of their experience of abuse in the hands of faceless misfits on twitter who have nothing better to do with their time than spit out abuse online.
All of the above known figures have faced death threats and significant abuse from unknown individuals online. Susanna Reid spoke of receiving multiple derogatory comments online, while Abbott and Markle received several death threats, in some cases, rape threats. Piers Morgan also reported getting serious death threats online, including serious abuse.
The complaints of abuse on twitter does not apply in this case, as Tiktok was the platform where Greatlish’s girlfriend faced abuse. The principle of regulation and prevention is the same. Serious abuse and threats are unacceptable.
There have been calls for social media giants like twitter and facebook to develop technology that identifies its users through an I.D system, making it easy to identify abusers and present them to the law.
A strict system put in place to identify social media users via an I.D system would put some people off, and reduce the overall number of users on social media platforms like twitter. This could then affect the revenue of social media platforms.
Toxic
On her YouTube channel, she described social media as “toxic” and it is “really sad” that teenagers as young as 13 are growing up thinking it is OK to send abuse online.
In a video on her YouTube channel, she addressed some of the “nasty comments” and abuse she had received on social media, adding that she likes to keep details about her relationship private.
In the video, highlighted by The Sun newspaper, Ms Attwood said: “This whole thing since it’s come out has just shown me that people are literally so mean.
“Genuinely, I was receiving, like, 200 death threats a day. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that.
“So many messages, every single day, and I still get them now, all day every day: ‘I hope you die’, ‘I hope you get cancer and die’, ‘I hope your whole family die’, ‘I hope the next time when you’re in the car you crash it and die’, ‘I hope after Wembley you die’.
“I never realized how bad it actually was, and the scary thing is it’s young girls.
“I’d go on these girls’ accounts who have sent me stuff and they’re literally like 13, 14, and it’s so sad.
“I try and put it down to age, but then I think I was never like that at that age. I never sent a message like that.
“I just think it’s so toxic, social media, and it’s really sad that these generations are growing up thinking that it’s OK to say things like that.”
Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate has previously discussed the issue of hate messages and death threats directed towards individuals online.
Mr Ahmed said: “This culture of impunity for abuse exists because social media firms refuse to take decisive action and impose any real consequences on those who spew hatred on their platforms.
“A social media account isn’t a human right. Abusive users haven’t been de-platformed in the past because social media companies profit from abuse—and especially the controversy and debate it generates.”
The Sun has launched an investigation regarding Ms Attwood’s comments. The Uk publication said that TikTok confirmed had removed comments highlighted by The Sun, and added that its community guidelines make clear this behaviour is not acceptable.