Social media discrimination

Kick It Out is dedicated to tackling English football-related discrimination and hate crime published on social media and regularly receives and act upon complaints.

  • What is social media discrimination?

    Discriminatory behaviour on social media can take many forms.

    Sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, faith and disability-related incidents are closely monitored by our official Twitter account, @kickitout, as well as our Reporting Officer’s official account, @kickitoutreport.

    However, the fast-paced nature of the internet coupled with the small staff team at Kick It Out means the organisation is not always able to capture all of this abuse and therefore encourages members of the public to report any discrimination they see online.

  • How to report online discrimination

    Individuals and groups can help us in tackling social media abuse by reporting incidents.

    To report an incident, please tweet the organisation on @kickitout, or tweet our Reporting Officer on @kickitoutreport. You can also make a report by emailing info@kickitout.org or contacting True Vision directly here.

    Kick It Out urges complainants to take screenshots of the online abuse, as well as a screenshot showing the profile of the alleged offender, and attach it when bringing an incident to our attention.

  • What Kick It Out does with your report

    We immediately inform True Vision, an online reporting facility run by the police, or the networks themselves of social media incidents that are within our remit.

    If the alleged offender is under The Football Association’s regulation the organisation will report the incident to them.

  • Online discrimination research

    In April 2015, in partnership with Tempero, the world’s largest full-service social media management agency, and Brandwatch, a world leading social intelligence and analytics company, Kick It Out published research revealing the extent of football-related discrimination across social media.

    Between August 2014 and March 2015, there were approximately approximately 134.4K (16.8K per month) discriminatory posts sent to Premier League clubs and players.

    You can read the findings in full here.

  • #KlickItOut campaign

    Following on from research published by Kick It Out in April 2015, which highlighted the extent of online discrimination towards Premier League clubs and players, the organisation launched a campaign called #KlickItOut.

    #KlickItOut aimed to challenge and raise awareness of football-related social media discrimination and how to report such incidents. You can read more about the campaign on the dedicated microsite here.

    Kick It Out also conducted research, in conjunction with Brandwatch, analysing the volume of discriminatory messages directed towards players at Euro 2016.

    The findings, which revealed approximately 22,000 instances of ‘direct discriminatory abuse’ of players during the tournament, can be read in full here.

  • Reporting Statistics

    Every year, Kick It Out publishes a statistical summary of the reports of discrimination the organisation has received during the campaign.

    This includes all reports of online and social media discrimination.

    For the 2015/16 reporting statistics, please click here.

Report an incident of discrimination confidentiallymore >

 

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