Why Hope Powell stays away from social media

Clubs, leagues, individuals and related parties such as the media will not be posting until Tuesday.

The boycott, aimed at highlighting the need to stop abuse on social platforms as soon as possible, kicked in at 3pm yesterday and is not confined to football.

Sussex County Cricket Club and Eastbourne Eagles speedway club are among those to take part within our county.

Reporters at The Argus will be staying away from our own social accounts and those under the newspaper’s name which we help operate and update.

There is one exception. An automated Twitter account, which provides links to stories on our website, cannot be halted for technical reasons.

The lack of social media will be a particularly strange experience on a matchday.

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Be it for those who follow the action and reaction or those who provide the service via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

But it is a significant step and one which will almost certainly be followed up here and potentially spread into other European nations.

Albion’s men and women made their stance clear before leaving the various social platforms yesterday.

Hope Powell, manager of Albion’s WSL team, is not on social media.

She said: “When Twitter and all those things started - and they are such good platforms generally - I didn’t want to be part of the negative side of it.

“I’ve seen some of the terrible messages and some of the things that people post to people.

“I didn’t want to be part of that.”

Clubs across the board use social media to promote their matches or activities.

But that aspect is perhaps most valuable for the women’s team as they look to build a following.

Powell said: “It’s a force for good. It raises awareness of the women’s game.

“It’s a platform for the women’s game.

“If it is used in the right way it sends such a positive message. It is so engaging.

“Young girls can engage with their favourite players, players can engage with each other.

“But really it is important a message is sent that the abuse is not acceptable and should never be tolerated.”

Paul Barber, Albion’s deputy chairman and chief executive, has been outspoken for some time in his demands for social media providers to clamp down on abuse.

Going into the boycott, he said: “We have been calling for social media companies to take the necessary action, including the filtering and blocking of offensive posts, together with a far better verification process which we hope will, in turn, lead to the prosecution of the all-too-often anonymous perpetrators of these cowardly acts.

“While small steps have been made, too little has been done, and so our requests for stronger and faster action are reiterated in this boycott.

“Football alone cannot stem the relentless flow of discriminatory messages, but our stance can only highlight the scourge of online abuse and the steps needed to eradicate the problem.”