Great Britain’s F1 trio of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and George Russell have announced that they’re joining a social media boycott across May Bank Holiday weekend.
This social media boycott will commence at 3pm BST today (30 April 2021) and run until 23:59pm on Monday 3 May, with various sport stars from different disciplines unite in a stance against poor handling of online abuse.
English Football was the first to declare this stance last Saturday (24 April) before various sports and sport stars followed suit with backing of various organisations like Kick It Out and Women’s Sport Trust who will also abstain from social media this weekend.
In a statement, Hamilton spoke of his decision to ‘stand in solidarity’ with football as the world of sport join forces in the call for social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to stamp out online abuse.
Hamilton also acknowledged that ‘sport has the power to unite us’ and that our current generation shouldn’t accept abuse and focus on being the people who ‘make a difference for future generations.’
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) April 30, 2021
McLaren’s Lando Norris meanwhile was blunt in his decision to join this boycott, explaining that everyone ‘struggles with abuse’ on social media at some point in their lives and has urged social media companies to do more to tackle this growing issue.
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) April 30, 2021
Grand Prix Drivers Association Director, George Russell announced that he is joining the boycott because he believes that it is “important” to stamp out “undeserved” online abuse.
Russell also spoke about how it is “our duty to raise as much awareness as possible not just within sport but within all walks of life…” if we are to put a stop towards unacceptable online behaviour.
Social media blackout this weekend guys. Time to make a change. pic.twitter.com/OCRs5xLUos
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) April 30, 2021
Formula One however have refused to boycott social media but iterated that they are ‘wholly committed’ to combatting online discrimination and support the actions despite deciding not to join the social media shutdown.
We are wholly committed to combatting any form of racism, online or otherwise
We continue to call out and report any incident of online hate, and we encourage our fans to do the same pic.twitter.com/VXPvwBita8
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 30, 2021
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