Graham Potter believes more can be done to cut out abuse on social media.

But he is confident the boycott this weekend is a good start.

Clubs, players, leagues and many members of the media will remain silent on social media from 3pm today through until midnight on Monday.

Social media accounts operated by our sports team of Brian Owen and Adam Stenning will be part of the boycott. 

(One automated Twitter account will continue to tweet links to website content but this is beyond our control).

The boycott is a show of solidarity against discriminatory abuse on social media platforms.

It will send out a strong message although there is some debate as to how much practical good it can do.

Potter believes there is scope to follow up this weekend’s action.

And that the means exist for social media companies themselves to crack down on abuse.

Albion’s head coach said: “I am not an expert on social media but I can see how much those platforms affect the world we’re in.

“We’re the ‘face-down generation’ as someone quoted to me.

“People are on their phones. It feels like your phone listens and talks to you.

“You’re talking about something and then an advert comes up about the stuff you’ve just been speaking about.

“Surely if the technology is there to do that, then they can police things a hell of a lot better than they are at the moment.

“This thing can do such a lot of good.

“They connect people but, like anything, there is good and bad and we need to really understand how the negative things can affect people, their mental health and their lives and we need to police it as well as we can.

“You’ve got to affect change and by boycotting you’re hopefully sending a message.

“You’re affecting things, such as the finances of these platforms and companies.

“People then are forced to do something different.

“We need to make sure in this day and age, with the billions that they have, surely there is a way to stop this abuse on the platforms.

“Then we have to try to create a world where any forms of abuse aren’t out there, but that might be a bit more difficult.”

Albion striker Neal Maupay said after the 1-0 defeat at Sheffield United that he expected to receive “hate” via social channels.

Aaron Connolly has at times withdrawn from social media.

Potter said, as a head coach, he had been approached by players concerned about social media “to certain degrees and different levels”.

He is keen for any targets of such abuse to talk about it.

The Albion boss added: “It’s natural and normal that, if people are on those platforms and they witness negativity and at times downright hatred, then as a human being as much as we say ‘let’s not listen to that’, we’re all a bit sensitive, we all want people to like us.

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“Fundamentally that’s a human characteristic.

“So, when you experience that negativity or when it’s more serious, abuse, it’s bound to affect someone.

“It’s about how they can articulate that and if they can be okay with it in terms of communicating to other people.

“If you internalise it, then it can be a problem.”