Manchester City will not celebrate Premier League title on social media if they seal crown this weekend

City have joined football’s social media boycott which aims to raise awareness of online abuse

Lawrence Ostlere
Friday 30 April 2021 12:30 BST
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Manchester City players celebrating the title in 2019
Manchester City players celebrating the title in 2019 (Getty Images)

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Manchester City will not celebrate on social media if they win the Premier League title on Sunday.

City have joined football’s social media boycott which aims to raise awareness of online abuse, and to force platforms like Twitter and Instagram into taking stronger measures. The club put out a statement on Friday ahead of the boycott, which is set to start at 3pm BST, calling for “significant action from social media companies” to stop online abuse. 

Pep Guardiola’s side are closing in on the Premier League, which would be the club’s fifth and the third under the Spanish manager. That feat will be sealed this weekend should City beat Crystal Palace on Saturday and their nearest challengers, Manchester United, lose against Liverpool on Sunday, but the club have confirmed to The Independent that they would not celebrate any triumph on social media until Tuesday once the boycott has ended.

In a statement on the boycott, City said: “Social media companies must do more to stop online abuse. That is why this weekend, the Premier League and our clubs will join other leagues, governing bodies and organisations across English football and wider sport to boycott social media and demand change.

“We want social media companies to do more to prevent the online discriminatory abuse received by players and many others across the world, which goes without any real-life consequences for perpetrators. We know that a boycott alone will not eradicate this, which is why we will continue to take proactive steps to call for change. We will not stop challenging social media companies until discriminatory online abuse is removed from our game and wider society.”

City went on to call for the government to introduce legislation which would hold social media companies accountable for abuse on their platforms.

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