Former Arsenal and Barcelona striker, Thierry Henry, has said he will close all his social media accounts, until online abuse is regulated “with the same vigour and ferocity” that copyright infringements are.
Henry insists he will keep himself off their platforms, until it is no longer easy to create an account with the intention of harassing another user and remaining anonymous.
A statement read: “From tomorrow (Saturday) 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 harass 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.”
Henry’s official Facebook page has 10m followers while he has a further 2.7m followers on Instagram and 2.3m followers on Twitter.