Klopp on social abuse: Companies must do more

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has called on social media companies to do more in the battle to eradicate abuse sent online.

The club condemned “abhorrent racial abuse” that Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita received after Liverpool’s Champions League 3-1 quarterfinal first-leg defeat at Real Madrid.

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Liverpool Women winger Rinsola Babajide received racist and sexist abuse on Instagram on Thursday and Klopp said: “Social media has a problem that hasn’t been sorted yet — people can hide behind whatever account and say what they want to say — that is a problem that has to get sorted on this planet as quickly as possible.

“I don’t use social media really — I have been criticised over the course of my career — but people you don’t know, who don’t want to help you, just don’t listen.

“That would be my advice to the players. I know there are some good things with social media but the things that are not important — if you can cut them off, that is a good solution.”

Scottish champions Rangers and Championship Swansea City have announced they will boycott social media for a one week while Jose Mourinho also said that Tottenham could join the movement. On Thursday, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson announced he handed over control of his social media accounts to an anti-cyberbullying charity.

Liverpool welcome Aston Villa to Anfield on Saturday and Klopp said the team are ready to put things right against Dean Smith’s side after suffering an embarrassing 7-2 loss in the reverse fixture in October.

“We had to put things right,” Klopp added. “It was a really strange game. I have the game in my mind, but I’m not sure how I will use it. We have to put things right for sure.

“You cannot put the game like this one [7-2] aside quickly — that is not possible. We had to work with it.

“A lot of things were a problem. We had to solve them. We spoke about it for sure, quite frequently.”