LONDON – Chelsea manager Frank Lampard called on social media firms to register their users in order to stamp out racist comments after defender Kurt Zouma became the latest player to be subjected to online abuse on Twitter on Saturday.
Zouma was targeted after he scored a late own goal in Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Sheffield United.
"We have to look at the social media and the platforms, and give some accountability to people who register, so they can be chased down for it," Lampard told reporters. "Unfortunately in modern society it's out there and it has to be dealt with."
Asked if Chelsea would meet social media companies to try to solve the issue, he said: "I think we have plans to do that."
Several black players have suffered online racist abuse, including Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham and Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba recently.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/CHESHU?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CHESHU pic.twitter.com/5wTLiCZsOx
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC)
Earlier this month, Twitter said representatives of the company would meet Manchester United and the anti-racism Kick It Out campaign in the coming weeks.
"We have always maintained an open and healthy dialogue with our partners in this space, but we know we need to do more to protect our users," Twitter said on August 21.