Opinion: The Social Media Blackout

Teams and sportspersons everywhere have had enough of online abuse, racist comments and social media companies not taking responsibility for the trolling that often happens on their sites. As a result, there is a sport-wide blackout on social media between 3 pm on Friday 30th April, to midnight on 3rd May. Formula 1 is one of many sports taking part in the blackout, others include the British and UEFA football leagues, Rugby, and England and Wales Cricket, as well as other sports organisations such as Sky, BT Sport, talkSPORT and many of sport's governing bodies

The idea is to not post any social media content during the timeframe, but others are choosing to post content that addresses social media abuse and online hate. The campaign started within the British football league, after reports of discrimination in professional football rose from 313 to 446, with a 42% increase in the sport as a whole. However, there are mixed opinions about the actions; some call it a great way to highlight the issue amongst sports fans, others say that it is performative and won't have any impact on the issue.

Amongst the Formula 1 drivers, only Alonso, Vettel, Giovinazzi and Räikkönen have not posted anything about the blackout or in support of the reasons for it. I have to say that I am slightly disappointed. Whilst we must not stretch to argue that just because they have a platform they have a duty to post, as this could reduce social efforts to being performative actions, we have to remember who these drivers are and what the weight of a comment from them would be. Particularly in the case of Alonso and Vettel, their silence is fairly obvious; both drivers have a big following from outside the F1 sport. Being well-known sportsmen, a comment on the situation, not even necessarily participating in the blackout, has a huge reach; this makes their silence louder to me. Between the two of them, they have 4.5 million fans; this is a humungous amount of people they have influence over. Even if they only raise awareness and change the opinion of a few, this is still progress.

Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, Perez, Norris, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Sainz, Ocon, Stroll, Gasly, Tsunoda, Russell, Latifi, Schumacher and Mazepin have all taken a stand on social media, calling for the end to the abuse. However, the teams themselves have chosen to not observe the boycott. It is a racing weekend, so the timing is not ideal as many fans use the accounts as an access point to the sport. But I personally believe that choosing to participate during the race weekend will send an even bigger message to the fans everywhere that the current situation has to change. To use the words of Carlos Sainz:

'... the true fans and supporters, are at the heart of what we do and it is not ideal to disengage completely with you guys during a GP weekend, but hopefully you can share and understand the bigger picture.'

It would be naive to suggest that not posting on social media for a few days will stop the problem. But it will draw attention to it. The uniting of many different sports is also something that is important in this. It shows the breadth of the problem and the expanse of the want for change. It also increases the reach of the campaign, raising even more awareness; this can only bring positive things. The more a person is exposed to an idea, the more likely they are to agree with it. This is called the mere-exposure effect. Therefore, the more a sport fan sees sportspeople posting about the boycott, and speaking out about the issue, the more a person will believe in it and support it. Even if that fan starts one conversation with their friend on the issue, the conversation on the topic is still being had. With exposure comes change.

There is a valid argument to be had in regards to Formula 1 and whether or not the drivers' actions are performative. The sport has not always taken the best actions concerning racism, therefore supporting it may seem like jumping on the bandwagon of other sports and trying to seem as though they are doing something, even if it is not a top priority. Having said this, I approach the argument with scepticism. Yes the FIA has been called out by Hamilton for not caring, but any effort being made is significant. Moreover, we can not necessarily judge the validity of current actions on past ones. There may be a genuine drive for change and there are indicators to support this hypothesis, such as the We Race As One initiative. Hamilton and others have been extremely vocal about rooting out racism and abuse in the sport.

The black British driver has worn shirts in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, such as "Arrest The Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor" on the podium and around the track during the 2020 season, clearly expressing his views on the topic; many of the drivers still choose to kneel before the race this season and wear 'End Racism' shirts in the pre-race lineup. This suggests some unity in the matter and need to remember that any progress is important. Even with just by the majority of the drivers posting, they have a social media reach of over 50 million. That’s a monumental amount of people seeing the same message. That is significant in itself, regardless of whether the FIA supports it.

Online abuse has to stop, regardless of its content; if the social media blackout has even a small impact, that is an important thing to recognise. As Hamilton has said in his statement:

'Sports has the power to unite us. Let's not accept abuse as part of the sport, but instead, let's be ones who make a difference for future generations.'

This issue isn't going to stop overnight but any steps towards change are vital; the blackout is a small step on a long road but the journey has to start somewhere. Enough is enough.