LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, December 6, 2020: Liverpool's captain Jordan Henderson, wearing a rainbow armband, during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC at Anfield. Liverpool won 4-0. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Jordan Henderson takes social media stand against “horrendous” racist abuse

Jordan Henderson has announced his partnership with Cybersmile, handing the anti-cyberbullying organisation his social media accounts in a stand against racist abuse. 

The Liverpool captain was absent for Tuesday night’s 3-1 loss to Real Madrid, but he was very aware of the abuse aimed at his team-mates in the immediate aftermath.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita were both subjected to racism on social media after the game, prompting Liverpool to issue a statement condemning online abuse via their official website.

Liverpool’s message was shared by the first-team squad, with Andy Robertson writing on his Instagram story: “Same shit, different day.”

It is a situation that is becoming worryingly familiar for footballers, who in the absence of supporters at games are being increasingly scrutinised and abused by so-called fans on social media.

With a lack of accountability held by the platforms themselves – such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – action is being taken by players and clubs, in a bid to prompt change.

Swansea City have announced that they would be partaking in a week-long blackout of their social media channels from 5pm on Thursday, while Thierry Henry has disabled his accounts entirely.

Henderson posted a series of messages to his Twitter page on Thursday afternoon, confirming that he was joining the movement by partering with Cybersmile.

“Over the past few years, I’ve seen some of my friends, team-mates, other players, people within football, out of football, the wider society, suffer some horrendous abuse online,” he explained in an accompanying video.

“And still, I don’t really see much changing.

“Again [Tuesday] night, some of my team-mates were racially abused online after a football match, and to me that’s just unacceptable.

“I have been thinking about deleting all social media, but I’m not quite sure who that helps or what it does.

“So I came across Cybersmile, who are a foundation that educate, support and advise people who suffer from social media abuse or online bullying.

“And I’ll be partnering with them over the next few weeks, for them to have full control of all of my social media channels to basically promote what they do, how to help people.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Wednesday, February 3, 2021: Liverpool's Xherdan Shaqiri, captain Jordan Henderson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Thiago Alcantara prepare for a free-kick during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Brighton & Hove Albion FC at Anfield. Brighton & Hove Albion won 1-0. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

“So we’ll be posting stuff, captions, support links on there, for people to go and use, who are suffering.

“Hopefully it can help a lot of people over the next few weeks – and please, however little you may think the issue is, reach out.

“We can definitely help you, as I know how sometimes it can be a very dark place on social media, no matter how many followers you’ve got.

“Please use it, and I hope it helps a lot of people.”