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| Urgent .. English sports teams are leading the campaign to boycott social media |
The UK's sports team, athletes and sports authorities are boycotting the world's largest social media platform for not taking action against online abuse.
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were boycotted until Monday evening.
In a first step, the Football Association, the Premier League, the English Football League, the Women's Super League and the Women's Championship jointly announced a boycott.
Other English sports, including cricket, rugby, tennis and horse racing, remained silent on social media.
Advertisers from FIFA, UEFA and the Premier League have also said they will be online within four days and that other people, including politicians and Prince William, will attend.
The American Women's Team announced that its social media reports do not include American players participating in English competitions where the boycott is appreciated and supported.
The boycott comes because US tech giants continue to be criticized for failing to eradicate racism and sexual assault on a large scale on their platforms.
Facebook and Twitter said racism and other forms of abuse had no place on their platforms.
Anti-discrimination organizations such as "Kick Out" and "Show Racism to Red Cards" participated in the district competition, as well as the movement’s governing body.
Former world champion Thierry Henry and Arsenal's record goalscorer pulled out of social media last month, hailing the boycott as a starting point in the fight against racism and discrimination.
Many athletes receive offensive information online every day while some contact them every hour, said Troy Denny, captain of Watford Football Club.
Alex Scott, who has played for Arsenal and England, urged the fans to get involved.
"The racist behavior is unacceptable and the cruel abuse of players that we see on social media platforms cannot continue," said Richard Masters (Richard Masters), chief executive of the English Premier League, in a statement.
He added: The Premier League has made this boycott along with football to highlight the urgent need for social media companies to take more measures to eliminate racial hatred.
Manchester United wrote before the boycott: Since September 2019, internet abuse against players has increased by 350% and we need to make changes.
Additionally, Everton Football Club said, pause and use the hashtags #StopOnlineAbuse and NoRoomForRacism.
The culture minister wrote in a British newspaper this week that social media companies will face severe penalties if racist abuse is not rooted out.
"We've seen fines of up to 10% of global annual sales, and for companies like Facebook or YouTube, fines can run into billions of dollars," he said.
Companies such as Adidas, Barclays, Budweiser, Cazoo and Smarkets, as well as broadcasters (including BT Sport and talkSPORT) participated in the regional competition.
A Facebook spokesperson said: Harassing or discriminating against others via Facebook or Instagram is against company policy.
He added, "We agree with the recommendations of many stakeholders and have made progress on those recommendations, including taking tougher action against those who violate our rules through direct private information."
Twitter said it had deleted more than 7,000 tweets in the UK since September 12 targeting football conversations and violating Twitter's rules.
A company spokesperson said: `` This equates to about 0.02% of all football talk in the UK and not the vast majority of people having heated discussions about football on Twitter.