It has now been more than five weeks since Thierry Henry deleted all his social media accounts. The “massive amount of racism and bullying and resulting mental torture” were “too poisonous to ignore,” said the former France international. Henry is therefore happy with the social media boycott of all English football, which lasts until Monday evening. He talks in conversation with CNN that the boycott is ‘a beginning’.
English football is united in a boycott of social media. The clubs from the Premier League, the English Football League and the Women’s Super League will be silent from Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. to Monday evening at 11:59 p.m. on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Henry has not been on those platforms for more than five weeks now. “At the beginning it felt strange. I thought: people do not fully realize how serious the problem is,” says the former attacker of Arsenal and Barcelona, among others.
Why are English clubs boycotting social media until Monday night?
English football has been united in a social media boycott this weekend.
“Sometimes you feel lonely when you are crying in the desert. And I’m not talking about myself. I’m talking about the people who don’t have a voice. The people who are harassed and treated on social media for the way they look, what they believe in, what their skin color is … “, Henry continues. “I thought, if I go from social media and take a stand for the people who don’t have a voice, I might create a chain reaction. People wanted to know why. But in the period after that, I thought for a short while: it’s a bit of a shame that people don’t really respond. To really have an impact, you need group size. “
“So when I saw that that is the case now, I was happy about it. But I also thought about all the people who have waited so long for that. I think it is great that people see that it is powerful when we put our heads together. Maybe there was a little wave after I got off it. People were kind of held accountable. So when I saw what was going to happen over the weekend, I thought: okay, this is a start, this is a start. I’m not saying a lot of people are waking up now, because everyone knew it happened, but people are a lot louder now. ”Henry sees ‘the same energy’ in the anti-discrimination movement as in the resistance to the Super League.
“It looks like we’re getting braver in trying to get those big companies to answer our questions. I know it’s not an easy issue for them, but it’s their job,” continued the former AS Monaco and CF coach. Montreal. Following his decision to move off social media, Twitter reached out to Henry. Instagram is in contact with a representative of Henry, but the former attacker has never spoken to anyone from Instagram. He declined the offer to meet with a representative. Henry believes that the priority should be to combat unacceptable behavior. “There is always so much talk… I just want action. That’s all. What would we be talking about? Are you going to tell me which statement you last published? Will it be a discussion, or are you going to tell me what’s going to happen? ”
“It’s a start,” Henry repeats about the boycott. “You cannot immediately demand too much. We have a voice together. We can let people know that we are not satisfied and that we want change. If you do nothing, nothing will ever change. If you try something, there is a chance that it will succeed and it will not succeed, but at least you raise awareness. You still have an impact in the background. Maybe it won’t happen this year, maybe not in two years, maybe not in three years. We may not see it anymore, but you have to do something when it happens. ”