British Rowing to join social media boycott

British Rowing stands united with the sporting community in calling for better protection for all individuals against discriminatory abuse of any kind online

British Rowing will join sporting clubs and organisations across the spectrum of sport in boycotting social media platforms this weekend. British Rowing’s social channels will be silent from 15.00 on Friday, 30 April to 23.59 on Monday, 3 May and we are encouraging rowing clubs, organisations and members of the rowing community to join too. The boycott aims to spur social media companies into action to put in place appropriate safeguards to help reduce online abuse and ensure that where abuse does occur those responsible are held accountable.

Social media is a powerful tool for our sport, helping connect our community and share our story. We are lucky that levels of online abuse within the rowing community are relatively low, however, we believe that this issue goes beyond the abuse of professional athletes. No one, whether they are a high profile athlete or young school child, should have to experience any form of abuse, discrimination or bullying on social media. The anonymous nature of social media accounts has allowed this to continue unchecked and action must be taken to stop this.

Andy Parkinson, British Rowing Chief Executive Officer said, “We are absolutely clear that discrimination, harassment and abuse have no place in rowing. We stand united in solidarity with our colleagues across sport in calling for greater action by social media companies to prevent this abuse on their platforms.”