Piers Morgan Says Sending Monkey Emojis To Black Footballers Is Racism

Piers Morgan has fired back at Twitter, stating that sending monkey emojis to Black footballers is racism after the social media platform refused to take action, saying that no regulations had been broken.

‘Let me help you, if somebody sends a monkey emoji to a black footballer, that is racism,’ the Good Morning Britain host said this morning.

His comments come after several Black Premier League footballers were subject to abuse online in recent weeks, with users flooding their Twitter feeds and Instagram comments with the monkey emoji.

However, Twitter said no regulations had been broken, that the emoji did not amount to racism and it would not take action against the perpetrators.

‘Let me help you Twitter. If somebody sends a monkey emoji to a Black footballer with a load of abuse, that is racism. That’s why they are doing it. And if you can’t regulate yourselves, it’s time that governments began to regulate you properly,’ he said.

Several football clubs and players who had reported the issue to Twitter criticised the social media platform’s response.

‘How can that make sense?’ Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi told beIN Sport.

‘If somebody puts for example, a monkey emoji towards a player – why is that? How is a player a monkey? What does that mean to a player? So for us seeing stuff like that it always makes us angry. Are you saying that because of our skin colour? Because of the colour that we are? Or are you just saying that because you just want to be, you think that you’re funny or you want to get a laugh out of people?’ Hudson-Odoi said.

He added, ‘No one laughs at that sort of situation. All of us take that personally as a team and as players. We have to do something about it. Because obviously, as I said, racism won’t stop.’

Manchester United player Marcus Rashford is one of the Black footballers who was subjected to racism last month.

In a series of tweets, he responded to the abuse saying he would not be sharing screenshots and that ‘no comment is going to make [him] feel any different’.

‘I have beautiful children of all colours following me and they don’t need to read it. Beautiful colours that should only be celebrated,’ he wrote.