Fifty-six persistently abusive Twitter users had their accounts permanently suspended on 12 July, the day after the European Championship final, amid a blaze of publicity surrounding hateful messages directed at Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. Some of these users, or ‘personas’, were observed to have joined in directly with the abuse. Thirty of the persistent offenders have since been found to be posting on the network, often under usernames only slightly altered.
The process of creating new accounts to get around suspensions or the blocking of accounts is known as respawning. Campaigners against online abuse, including those within the football industry, have long argued that such a practice is central to the persistent culture of abuse online. They believe it is too easy to respawn, with nothing more than a new email address or sim card required.
Twitter users banned after racist abuse of England players still posting online
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