This archive report was first published on 21 August 2019.
Published on August 21, 2019, Twitter has agreed to meet with Manchester United representatives to discuss the racist abuse of Paul Pogba on social media platforms.
Following Pogba's penalty miss in Manchester United's 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers, the French midfielder became the third footballer in a week to suffer racial abuse for missing a penalty, after Chelsea's Tammy Abraham and Reading's Yakou Meite.
Manchester United executives had called for a meeting with Twitter after Pogba was subjected to abuse, with team-mate Harry Maguire demanding that social media platforms be more proactive in stopping 'pathetic trolls'. England women's football manager Phil Neville also suggested that football players should boycott social media.
Twitter has stated that they will meet with Manchester United, Kick It Out, and other civil society stakeholders to discuss their proactive work in addressing online racist abuse towards footballers in the UK.
"We have always maintained an open and healthy dialogue with our partners in this space, but we know we need to do more to protect our users. Racist behaviour has no place on our platform and we strongly condemn it," Twitter said in a statement.
Twitter has increased the number of accounts suspended for evading a previous ban by 45% since 2018 and tripled the number of accounts suspended within 24 hours after receiving a report.
