Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez, top, heads the ball past Crystal Palace’s Joachim Andersen during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, on Monday, Aug 15, 2022. Andersen took to Instagram to share what he said was a sample of hundreds of abusive messages he had received since the encounter with Nunez. — AP
LONDON: Joachim Andersen has elected to involve police after he was bombarded by death threats and a torrent of abuse online following Crystal Palace’s 1-1 draw at Liverpool.
The Eagles defender was headbutted by Darwin Núñez, who was red-carded by referee Paul Tierney and now faces a three-match ban for violent conduct.
Andersen was booked in the same incident, but took to Instagram to share what he said was a sample of hundreds of abusive messages he had received since the encounter.
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“Got maybe 300-400 of these messages last night,” the Dane posted to his Instagram story.
“I understand you support a team but have some respect and stop act [sic] tough online.
“Hope @instagram and the @premierleague do something about this.”
Palace players can choose whether or not to engage their club’s police liaison officer and the Premier League, who have a team set up to investigate, and the PA news agency understands that Andersen has elected to do so.
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A Premier League spokesman confirmed the governing body had been in touch with Palace this morning to offer help.
Some of the screenshots called for the Palace player’s death, while others – many ridden with expletives – contained other vile attacks.
Many threatened not just Andersen, but his family.
“I will kill you and your family. (Expletive) you tomorrow. See you You will died (sic),” wrote one user, while another said: “I hope you have a long life of pain for u and ur family you (expletives).”
A third wrote: “Some tough man diving on the floor, hope the plane crashes on the way back to London.”
A spokesperson for Instagram’s parent company Meta said the organisation were in contact with Andersen’s representatives.
The spokesperson said: “We have strict rules against bullying and harassment and we are in direct contact with Joachim’s team on the issue.
“Because DMs are private spaces, we don’t proactively look for hate speech or bullying in the same way we do in other places, and we need someone to report the message in app before we can take action.
“No one thing will fix this challenge overnight, but we’re continuing our work with the industry and Government to help keep our community safe from abuse.”
The Online Safety Bill, welcomed by both the FA and anti-discrimination charity Kick it Out, was due to be discussed in Parliament in July.
The legislation is designed to impose a greater duty of care on tech companies to tackle abuse and hate on their platforms, but was postponed until the Conservative leadership campaign, which determines the next UK Prime Minister, concludes. – dpa
