Arsenal football club legend, Thierry Henry has announced he will disable his social media accounts until racist users are held accountable for their posts by the companies
The former Arsenal and France captain made the announcement on his social media platforms on Friday, March 26 after so many black footballers including Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Tyrone Mings complained about racist abuse they receive on social media.
Henry says social media companies such as Twitter and Instagram are not doing all they can to prevent racism on their platforms and he will not return to social media until a change has been made.
Henry wrote: “Hi Guys.
“From tomorrow morning I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright.
“The sheer volume of racism, bullying and resulting mental torture to individuals is too toxic to ignore. There HAS to be some accountability.
“It is far too easy to create an account, use it to bully and harrass without consequence and still remain anonymous.
“Until this changes, I will be disabling my accounts across all social platforms. I’m hoping this happens soon.”
Last July, Henry made a statement by taking a knee for the first eight minutes and 46 seconds of a match against New England Revolution.
He also showed solidarity following the death of George Floyd, who died early 2020 after a Minnesota police officer pressed his knee on his neck for the same amount of time as Henry knelt.
He also explained the abuse he received after moving to the New York Red Bulls in an interview last year.
“At one point, I said people didn’t see my colour any more because I played football, because I was, in brackets, famous,” Henry said.
“When I came to play in the US, my colour came back because no one could recognise me, depending on which state we were in. My colour came back. It was the first time again that I felt like I left my neighbourhood.
“When I arrived in New York, some people could recognise me and some couldn’t.
“When you ask for a cab, he looks and sees you are a certain colour and puts the light on and suddenly he isn’t free any more. You’re left like, ‘Hang on I’m alone here’. It hit me again.”
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