Outrage as racist post about England footballer Bukayo Saka remains on Twitter because he 'does not violate safety policies'

Activists have criticized X/Twitter today for failing to remove a new racist post targeting England and Arsenal national team Bukayo Saka.

The image included a vile Photoshopped image and racial slurs, yet Elon Musk's social media company insisted it “did not violate safety policies.”

The disgusting tweet comes in the wake of racist hate messages after the Euro 2021 final in which Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho all missed in a penalty shootout defeat by Italy.

Gareth Southgate, coach of the Furious Three Lions, described the offensive comments as “inexcusable”, and X/Twitter promised a crackdown.

The latest jibe – which has raised fears of more to come in this summer's tournament – comes in the wake of Arsenal's Champions League match against Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

Saka (22 years old) believes he should have received a penalty kick at the last minute, but some posters accused him of trying to deceive the referee.

The troll wrote that he “needs to humble himself before he destroys this sport further” and posted the photo.

User Andrew Howard immediately reported the post. “Three days later, X said, 'No, it doesn't violate our safety policies,' so the matter still stands,” he wrote in an update.

I think this means the season will be open again this summer for England players. Pathetic.”

Sunder Katwala, director of equality think tank British Future, said: “There has been a systemic failure by

“It breaks all the promises they made after the Euros. If they can't put their house in order, this year's tournament will fail again. They need to sort it out.”

Tory MP Tracey Crouch, deputy chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Football Fans, said: “This post is disgusting and simply unacceptable.

“X must remove them immediately and put in place measures to stop another torrent of racist abuse towards footballers.”

Earlier tonight, the FA also called on X/Twitter to remove the post.

A club spokesman told The Sun on Sunday: “Incidents of racism and discrimination have no place in football or wider society, and we are deeply concerned about the increase in online abuse in recent years.”

“We have worked closely with the government to ensure that the newly introduced Online Safety Act effectively tackles offensive and discriminatory abuse online, and provides better protection for social media users.

“We continue to urge the government to ensure that the independent regulator, Ofcom, has sufficient powers to hold social media companies to account.

“We also call on social media companies to provide better tools so that users are free from harmful discrimination.”

According to the Rules and Policies section of X/Twitter's website, “hateful behavior” is a violation of its safety guidelines.

This is defined as attacking people “on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, social class, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious illness.”

The penalty for violations depends on their severity and the individual's prior record. This could include suspending the account that posted it.

However, in a direct response to Mr Howard's complaint, he said: “After reviewing the information available, we want to tell you that it did not breach our safety policies.

“If this account violates our policies in the future, we will notify you.”

The researchers found that the use of offensive insults increased after Musk took over the site in October 2022.

But the billionaire claims that “impressions of hate speech” have decreased.

X/Twitter was contacted for comment earlier today.