Boris Johnson warns of action against social media companies who fail to remove racist abuse

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday that social media companies who fail to remove racist and discriminatory abuse from their platforms could receive a fine of 10% of their global revenue.

Johnson also told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions that the government are planning to alter the football banning order regime so that it covers what happens online.

The announcement comes after England's penalty shootout loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday, for which Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka all received vile racist abuse online for missing their spot kicks.

Johnson has confirmed that his government will take action following the widespread condemnation of the actions of some, saying the platforms on which the abuse takes place could face fines of 10% of their global income should offending posts not be removed.

"Last night I met representatives of Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and I made it absolutely clear to them that we will legislate to address this problem in the Online Harms Bill," Johnson told his fellow MPs, quoted by Sky Sports.

"And unless they get hate and racism off their platforms, they will face fines amounting to 10 per cent of their global revenues - we all know they have the technology to do it.

"I utterly condemn and abhor the racist outpourings that we saw on Sunday night. So what we are doing is taking practical steps to ensure that the football banning regime is changed so that if you are guilty of racist abuse online on football, then you will not be going to the match."

"No ifs, no buts, no exemptions, no excuses."

Johnson was also pressed by SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford about the government's previous Sewell Report, which concluded that there was no systemic problem of racism in the UK.

Blackford asked: ""After the shocking racism on show over the last week does the Prime Minister still stand by his Government's belief that systemic racism is not a problem that exists in the United Kingdom?"

The Prime Minister admitted in his reply: "I do think racism is a problem in the United Kingdom and I believe it needs to be tackled, and it needs to be stamped out with some of the means I have described this morning."