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Football

01st Nov 2021

Wilfried Zaha told by Instagram to report racists himself in order to see action

Callum Boyle

Zaha was racially abused after Crystal Palace’s win against Manchester City last weekend

Wilfried Zaha has been told by Instagram that he will need to report any incidents of racial abuse himself report any incidents of racial abuse himself if he wants to see action, reports the Mirror.

Zaha took to Instagram to reveal a series of racist messages he received after Crystal Palace’s 2-0 win against Manchester City.

In his post, the 28-year-old said: “This message isn’t for me to get a million messages saying we stand with you and it’s disgusting or about me getting sympathy.

“I’m not here for all the nonsense that is being done instead of fixing the actual problem!

“I don’t mind abuse because nowadays it comes with doing the job I do even though it’s not an excuse, but my colour will always be the real problem.

“It’s fine because I’ll always be BLACK AND PROUD! Speak to me when you actually take this issue seriously.”

Despite the platform insisting they have a zero-tolerance approach, Instagram have refused to take action, informing Zaha that should he want them to investigate, he will have to report each message individually.

It comes after a series of questions have been raised against social media companies and whether they are doing enough to help tackle online abuse.

A Crystal Palace fanzine took to Twitter to condemn Instagram, insisting that them and fellow social media platforms need to do more to stop online abuse.

It said: “No, this is outrageous. Social media companies should be able to develop algorithms that detect word and emoji combinations. It’s not difficult to see that what  @wilfriedzaha received had a common, racist theme.”

“So do the work yourself, @instagram. Make your platform safer.”

Just seven months ago, Instagram had announced that they had installed a new tool which would allow users to filter out direct message requests which contained offensive words and emojis in order to protect people from online absue.

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