Manchester United duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire received the most Twitter abuse of any Premier League players, a new study by the Alan Turing Institute has found.
Ofcom looked at 2.3 million tweets in the first half of last season and found nearly 60,000 abusive tweets, affecting seven in 10 top-flight players, as per BBC Sport.
It is suggested that half of that abuse was directed at just 12 professionals – eight players from Manchester United.
Furthermore, the top four most abused players all play for United, which is pretty shameful.
The study also found most fans use social media responsibly – but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. I’m sure all of you that use Twitter have stumbled across abusive tweets aimed at footballers in the past, usually from anonymous accounts.
Players who received the greatest number of abusive tweets – 13 August 2021 to 24 January 2022
- Cristiano Ronaldo – 12,520
- Harry Maguire – 8,954
- Marcus Rashford – 2,557
- Bruno Fernandes – 2,464
- Harry Kane – 2,127
- Fred – 1,924
- Jesse Lingard – 1,605
- Jack Grealish – 1,538
- Paul Pogba – 1,446
- David de Gea – 1,394
It’s a sad reality that comes with gaining popularity in the modern age, but I have always believed these social media networks can do more when it comes to abusive users on their platforms.
“These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game,” said Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s group director for broadcasting and online content.
“Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort.”
Let us know in the comments section what you think could be done to tackle online abuse?
