Ofcom analysed 2.3 million tweets in the first half of last season and found nearly 60,000 abusive posts, affecting seven in 10 top-flight players.
Shockingly, half of that abuse was directed at just 12 individuals – eight from Manchester United.
Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list with 12,520 abusive tweets directed at the Portuguese star. As per the Ofcom report, the day Ronaldo re-joined Manchester United saw three times more tweets than any other day (188,769), of which 3,961 were abusive.
Another peak in abusive tweets directed at Premier League footballers came on 7 November when Harry Maguire tweeted an apology following Manchester United’s 2-0 home defeat by Manchester City.
Maguire was also the second most abused player on Twitter from August 13, 2021, to 24 January 2022, with 8,594 tweets.
Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Fred, Jesse Lingard, Paul Pogba and David de Gea also made the list whilst playing for United last term.
A report from OFCOM has revealed that Harry Kane is the Premier League Player with the 5th most abusive tweets received. @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/XwyZMJIVSJ
— The Spurs Express (@TheSpursExpress) August 2, 2022
“These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game,” said Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom’s group director for broadcasting and online content.
“Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort.”
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