Sky Sports announces plans to tackle online abuse

Sky Sports has announced a set of new measures coming into effect immediately to combat online abuse and hate across its platforms.

Over 40 million users engage on Sky Sports' channels on digital and social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) which have seen a spike in hateful comments on the basis of race, colour, gender, nationality, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexuality, age and class.

Sky Sports is committed to inspiring change. To help tackle online hate Sky Sports has put in place a series of actions to counteract the behaviour of a minority of users.

From 1 October, across its digital and social platforms, Sky Sports will commit to the following actions:

Sky Sports will use the power of its reach and voice to highlight the scale of online hate and abuse and the damage that it can inflict upon people

We will seek to remove as many abusive and hateful comments posted on skysports.com and our channels on social media platforms as we can;

We will block users bringing hate to our comments sections on our website and channels on social media platforms;

We will report hate and abuse to the social media platforms;

We will report the most serious cases to the relevant authorities;

We strive to make our channels respectful places where sporting conversations thrive;

We will keep commissioning journalism that shines a light on social injustices and inequality in sport.

We will work with the social media platforms and policymakers to make their platforms safer and more respectful

Director of Sky Sports News & Digital Publishing Mark Alford said: Were proud to talk about sport with more than 40 million users of Sky Sports social and digital platforms across the world. We love to see the passion for sport when we engage with sports fans discussing and debating subjects that mean so much to them.

Unfortunately, there is a small minority who use digital platforms to post hate, abuse and profanity against our content and our people. This needs to stop. We would like the major social media companies to do more to stop harmful content on their platforms. They have the best tools and visibility to act against abusive or hateful comments and owe a duty of care to their users. The onus should be on the social media platforms to behave like responsible publishers.

We commit to making skysports.com free from abuse, and will strive to make our channels on social media a safer space for all sports fans.

Sky Sports analyst Micah Richards added: I have been a victim of racial abuse online as have so many others. It is - of course - horrible to receive and the negative impact such comments have can outweigh all the positive aspects of social media. These commitments are a positive step as large publishers like Sky Sports need to use their voice to address some of these issues, help educate and ultimately eradicate all forms of online abuse.

Users who see a reply to Sky Sports posts and/or content with an expression of hate are asked to copy the URL to the post and email it to socialsupport@skysports.com.

Sky is a proud supporter of National Inclusion Week and is committed to diversity in sport, both as an employer, broadcaster and publisher; covering all aspects of sport, from live action and analysis to highlighting racial injustice and emphasising issues affecting women in sport.

For more information

Sky Sports PR

020 7032 1445

skypress@sky.uk

About Sky

With 24 million customers across six countries, Sky is Europe's leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Our 32,000 employees help connect our customers to the very best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own local, original content.

Following the success of Sky originals like Chernobyl, we plan to double our investment in original content by 2024. We're also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

Our technology allows Sky customers to watch what they want, when they want, how they want and connects millions of people to content they love. And our online streaming service, NOW TV, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

We also believe that a company of our scale has a responsibility that goes beyond our business, and into the community. We recently announced a series of commitments to help tackle racial injustice and improve diversity and inclusion. To ensure the commitments are delivered, Sky will invest £10million per year across its markets for each of the next three years. We're committed to being Europe's first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 - two decades before we have to - and we're an inclusive employer recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity.

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