Anton Ferdinand believes that it will take a football player’s suicide in order for social media companies to act against online abuse. Anton Ferdinand along with Lianne Sanderson and Marvin Sordell are part of a Home Affairs Committee inquiry. This is in regard to the abuse they received in stadiums as well as online. The former said she is frustrated that offenders can hide behind anonymous accounts online.
“You can take down (abusers’) profiles but then they can recreate one without even having to go through anything,” she said. “I’m sure the same people that time and time again abuse me, they just recreate the account and they do it again because you can tell by the way they’re writing.”
Ferdinand spoke about the social media impact on his life and feels that it will take a tragedy for social media companies to act.
“It is built to make you addicted to it, you can’t put it down once you start scrolling,” Anton Ferdinand said about social media companies. “There is a mental health issue of not being able to escape it. My worry is, what are the social media companies waiting for? Are they waiting for a high-profile footballer to kill themselves, or a member of their family to commit suicide? Is that what they’re waiting for? Because if they’re waiting for that it’s too late. This comes down to if (the social media companies) really want to make a change? So far, their words are that they want to but their actions are different.”
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