Lionesses: 'Online abuse may undermine female sport participation'

The caput of Sport England has written to Ofcom, the communications manufacture regulator, to explicit its "deep interest regarding the caller question of racist and sexist abuse" directed astatine England's women's shot squad connected societal media.

Chris Boardman, the president of the assemblage athletics backing agency, said "the toxic civilization that persists online threatens to undermine" efforts to summation rates of pistillate participation.

Lionesses defender Jess Carter has revealed she has been targeted with online racist abuse passim the tournament.

In a missive seen by BBC Sport, Boardman warned: "This behaviour is abhorrent and unacceptable successful immoderate context, but it is particularly disheartening fixed the advancement we person made successful championing women and girls successful sport.

"Through Sport England and National Lottery investment, we person committed hundreds of millions of pounds to summation participation, visibility and accidental for women and girls successful sport."

In October 2023, the Online Safety Act became law, ensuring societal media platforms person a work to support users from contented specified arsenic racism, with Ofcom liable for enforcing the legislation, and processing codes of signifier to usher tech companies. However, immoderate anti-racism campaigners judge determination needs to beryllium much urgency.

"The Online Safety Act 2023 provides a model to code amerciable and harmful content, including hatred code and misogynistic abuse," wrote Boardman.

"We are peculiarly funny successful however the caller codes tin beryllium utilized to code the benignant of targeted maltreatment we are seeing. We recognize that Ofcom has besides issued draught guidance connected improving online information for women and girls, and we would invited the accidental to sermon however these measures tin beryllium strengthened and enforced.

"For excessively long, net trolls person been fixed escaped rein by the large tech companies to dispersed bile and misery, and this cannot beryllium allowed to continue.

"Could you delight counsel what further steps tin beryllium taken wrong the existent regulatory model to tackle misogyny and racism online?"

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC Sport that societal media companies and Ofcom "need to bash more".

"I deliberation the enactment volition proceed to beryllium tested each clip a occupation surfaces and it's incumbent connected those specified arsenic Ofcom and societal media platforms to beryllium proactive successful rooting this out," she said.

"We brought successful the Online Harms Act this twelvemonth to marque definite determination are sanctions for companies that don't instrumentality this contented down and we are doing a batch of enactment successful schools to amended young radical astir the interaction of online maltreatment but it's incumbent connected each of america to telephone this out.

"It's perfectly disgraceful what [Jess Carter] has had to enactment up with and we are wholly down her and the Lionesses."

Ofcom has been approached for comment.