British sports chief Chris Bordeaux has officially expressed concerns with the government’s regulator about the intensification of online abuse that targeted the British Women’s Team during the Euro 2025.
The intervention, following the decision of the British defender Jessar Carter to withdraw from social media after disclosing him during the tournament in Switzerland, has received “a lot of racial abuse”, which the football union has referred to the police.
Boardman’s letter to Dame Melanie Dawes, executive director of the Communications Regulatory, highlighted the “recent wave of racist and sexual abuse” towards players.
He urged the body to deploy his full powers to deal with online trolls.
Boardman, while acknowledging the amount of interaction and participation in women’s sports, warned that “the toxic culture that continues in social media is threatening to weaken this progress.”
Boardman wrote: Abuse of athletes “not only causes personal damage but also sends a destructive message to the next generation of girls who wish to follow their stairs.”
“Research on behalf of this campaign, our girl can show the fear of judgment for women being active, and the abuse of our elite athletes online only increases the reservation between those who participate at the community level.”
In the letter, he urged arms to take advantage of the authority in the 2023 Online Safety Act to address abuse and says “has a key role”.
“We are particularly interested in how to use new codes to address the type of targeted abuse we see,” Bordain wrote.
“We know that fromcom has also issued a draft guidance on improving online safety for women and girls, and we welcome the opportunity to discuss how to strengthen and implement these actions,” she said.
“For a long time Internet trolls have been given by large technology companies to expand bile and misery, and this is not possible.”
“No one has to deal with this kind of misuse,” said Jessica Zucker, the online safety manager at thecom,.
“When all the rules are completely necessary, the largest social media sites need to give users more power to filter anything that is not illegal,” he said.
“And we have provided ways that online services must go ahead to deal with the misconduct and candles targeted in women.
“We will consider companies accountable, but this must happen along with effective training and law enforcement against people who do illegal abuse.”
