30th July, 2020
Crystal Palace winger, Wilfred Zaha stated that black footballers are becoming scared to use social media because of the alarming cases of racist abuse.
The Ivory Coast international had received racist messages from a 12-year-old boy earlier this month. He was later arrested for the incident.
In a recent interview with CNN, Zaha disclosed that he has created a platform to help fight off racial abuse.
He said because of the previous incident, he abandoned his Twitter account.
Zaha said: “I’ve had racial abuse all my life but it’s a thing where for right now, I’ve got a platform where I feel like if I can make a change, I’ll try.”
“For black footballers for instance, being on Instagram is not even fun anymore. You’re not enjoying your profile because every time I’m scared to even look up my direct messages anymore because it could be filled with anything.
“I don’t even have Twitter on my phone anymore, because it’s almost certain that you’re going to get some sort of abuse.”
He added: “I reported 50 accounts… and I got racially abused after the stuff that I got before, and it’s like what happens after that account gets blocked?
“Then they just make a new one straight after. I feel like with everything that we do in life, with everything we register to, we have to give some sort of ID, so why is it not the same with Instagram? Why is it not the same with Twitter?”