LONDON: Four people have been arrested for online racist abuse aimed at members of the English football team after the final of the European Championship Sunday, the British police said on Thursday.
The specialist team saw offensive comments, police said, after three black players – Marcus Rashford, Sancho Jadon and Bukayo Saka – targeted with racist abuse on social media, Instagram and Twitter media sites.
The three sentences were missed in the defeat of the Penalty-Shotout against Italy at Wembley Stadium in London.
Abuse has been widely cursed and the government has promised actions against social media companies if they do not eliminate material offend faster.
“We work very closely with the social media platform, which provides the data we need to advance questions,” said Constable Chief Mark Roberts, officers responsible for leading the British police response to the problem of football.
“If we identify that you are behind this crime, we will track you and you will face serious consequences of your embarrassing actions.” The incidence of hate crimes led by the English Football Police Unit is ongoing.
Police said dozens of data applications have been submitted to technology companies and that four people have been arrested so far.
The British players have highlighted the problem of racism by taking the knee before their match, protests put forward by several fans.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to overcome online harassment, but he and other ministers have been accused of hypocrisy because they did not condemn those who defiled the players at the beginning of the tournament.
The police also said that there were 897 incidents related to football and 264 arrests in 24 hours around the final, a major increase in the previous soccer tournament in 2016 and 2018.
At Wembley, fans were groups that were difficult to diserbeen.