Kick It Out

Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion organisation, has been at the forefront of tackling discrimination in football for over 20 years. Here they explain their work involving social media.

Working throughout the football, educational and community sectors to challenge discrimination, encourage inclusive practices and campaign for positive change, Kick It Out has helped football become a more tolerant and inclusive sport.

However, there are still many issues blighting the nation’s game. With the organisation now into its third decade of existence, there are new challenges that lie in the way of making football the bastion of inclusion.

With society moving towards a digital future, the issue of discrimination has seemingly shifted from the openness of the terraces to the vast and anonymous space that is social media.

Kick It Out uses its social media platforms to communicate key messages of equality, with the online world providing the opportunity for the organisation’s messages to be seen globally. However, these public platforms are also used as vehicles for hate.

As a third-party reporting bureau for football-related discrimination, Kick It Out has seen a continuous rise in reports received relating to abuse posted on social media. With this ever-growing number, the organisation wanted to look at the true extent of discrimination online.

Alongside Tempero, the world’s largest full-service social media management agency, and Brandwatch, a world leading social intelligence and analytics company, Kick It Out revealed that between August 2014 and March 2015 there were approximately 134,000 discriminatory messages posted on social media aimed towards Premier League clubs and players.

The following season (2015/16) saw almost identical figures released from research by Brandwatch, clearly displaying the problem was not a short-term issue. With this in mind, Kick It Out launched a social media campaign to run during the course of the 2016 European Championships.

‘Klick It Out’ highlighted the problem of social media discrimination and also encouraged people to show their support by proactively challenging hate online.

Supported by the footballing authorities, including The Football Association, the Premier League, the English Football League and The PFA alongside backing from influential partners such as Twitter, Facebook and the Ministry of Justice, the campaign sent a strong message encouraging social media users not to engage in discrimination.

Brandwatch produced further data analysis at the end of ‘Klick It Out’, revealing that 22,000 negative discriminatory football-related posts were sent across various social media platforms throughout Euro 2016.

Another aspect of the campaign saw social media users interact with the organisation. This included posting messages of support for ‘Klick It Out’ on the platforms as well as providing more information on how to stay safe online and report incidents of discrimination.

Over the course of the campaign, ‘Klick It Out’ also spoke to a number of high-profile figures from within football, including ITV Football Commentator Clive Tyldesley, Birmingham City striker Clayton Donaldson and Sky Sports presenter Bianca Westwood, who explained their experiences of discrimination online.

Speaking after Klick It Out had concluded, Roisin Wood, Chief Executive Officer at Kick It Out, explained the reasoning behind the campaign and what needs to happen in the future.

“We’ve been discussing football-related social media discrimination for the past two years and it is why we felt the need for our ‘Klick It Out’ campaign around Euro 2016.

“The figures recorded by Kick It Out, in partnership with Brandwatch, during Euro 2016 again confirm that the volume of abuse is completely unacceptable. Approximately 22,000 instances of ‘direct discriminatory abuse’ during the tournament speaks for itself.

“There needs to be collective action from football authorities, the police and the social media platforms, so that everyone in the game – from supporters right up to players and managers – know the consequences of posting discrimination and the impact it can have on victims.”

Kick It Out has since liaised with the likes of Twitter and Facebook around the problems of discrimination online and how the platforms can effectively combat hate.

For the 2016/17 season, Kick It Out has kept the issue of abuse on social media on the top of its agenda through it’s ‘Call Full Time On Hate’ initiative.

‘Call Full Time On Hate’ has highlighted the positive messages of inclusion echoed by football authorities, clubs, players, managers and supporters by clearly displaying the sport’s determination to deter hate from seeping into the game at stadiums or on social media.

Whilst this issue of social media discrimination isn’t going to go away overnight, Kick It Out will maintain its stance of raising awareness and working with key partners and platforms to help achieve an inclusive social media environment.

You can report social media discrimination to Kick It Out via the organisation’s Twitter @kickitout, via email on info@kickitout.org, or via the organisation’s reporting app which is available for download at the Apple Store or Google Play.