Newcastle have urged Meta, the owner of Instagram, to assist Northumbria police in identifying the individual responsible for subjecting the midfielder Joe Willock to racist abuse and threats of violence on the social media platform.
Willock, a Newcastle substitute during Sunday’s 2-0 Premier League home win against Crystal Palace, missed a late chance to extend his team’s lead and, shortly afterwards, received a series of racist messages from an anonymous Instagram account.
Having posted a screen grab of the abusive messages to his followers, Willock replied: “I pray you and your family find God. And may him have mercy on you.”
It is the second time in less than 12 months that the 26-year-old has been subjected to such abuse and Northumbria police have confirmed they have initiated an investigation that will involve their officers working in conjunction with the UK Football Policing Unit.
“We are disgusted by racist abuse received by Joe Willock on Instagram on Sunday evening,” Newcastle said. “Following our win over Crystal Palace, Joe received several direct messages from an Instagram account that included racial slurs and deeply disturbing threats of violence towards Joe and his family. Sadly, Joe has faced this before. Each time we have acted quickly to support him and this has been our immediate priority again.
“We have swiftly reported this material to the police and we will fully support any investigation to identify the person responsible and hold them accountable, wherever they are.”
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As Newcastle emphasise, the police are likely to hit brick walls unless Meta are prepared to reveal the private information needed to identify the Instagram user. “This can only happen with meaningful action from Meta, Instagram’s owners,” said Newcastle. “We urge Meta to give the police all the information they need to identify the perpetrator, and to do so quickly.
“Removing content and applying message filters in not enough. Social media companies must do more to protect users and support the prosecution of those who seek to break the law on their platforms. We stand firmly with Joe and anyone else who faces this kind of abuse.”
Richard Offiong, the campaign coordinator for Show Racism the Red Card, a leading anti-racism educational charity, said there was an urgent need for social media companies to do far more to stop racist abuse across their platforms.
“Strong measures are needed to identify perpetrators quickly, remove harmful content and ensure those responsible face real consequences. Education, accountability and robust enforcement must go hand in hand if we are serious about tackling racism.”
