hypochondriac

Her career was ruined by injuries and she retired for the first time at 22.

Last final with two teenagers was Williams against Hingis...

Maybe but I didn't like the lack of balance from the evidence that I saw. It was just a load of people on one side of an issue hammering social media and demanding regulation of things even if they weren't illegal. This bill is an absolute nightmare for freedom of expression and more needs to be made of the implications of just allowing social media companies to decide what is acceptable and unacceptable to discuss online. I expect if there really is this heavy censorship in the UK that what will happen is that there will either be a load of smaller social media companies that pop up for uncensored speech or vpn use will just go way up. Some may argue that that's good enough because it will present enough of an obstacle to stop the worst offenders but I would say its a slippery slope. You'll be getting digital rights holders demanding the removal or media from search engines next and then the end of fair use. What this leads to is control of the majority of Internet to a tiny number of largely "woke" and companies who will decide for everyone else what is acceptable to do online and I don't think that's a good thing at all even if the intention to reduce racist comments on twitter is understandable.

Thanks for the considered reply and I agree our conversation was a lot more productive than other people who were just hurling abuse. I totally understand why someone like Ferdinand would be upset by some of the abuse he has received online. My problem is that he's probably not the best person to be recommending policies given his clearly very personal experience of being on the receiving end of this stuff. What I consider to be of vital importance is that we don't charge through a load of laws on the pretext of "ending racism online" or protecting children and then find out that its actually all a massive overreach which effectively ends any lively discourse on social media. I listened to a Graham linehan podcast this week and he made the point that he doesn't believe that humans have evolved to be able to handle the Internet sufficiently. I'd be inclined to agree with him.

I'm sure Turkish can speak for himself but I'd be interested to know what conversation you had a few days ago that led you to believe he considered racism acceptable because I haven't seen any evidence of that. If you get time later it would be helpful if you tried to explain which part you feel I "haven't digested" because otherwise it just looks like you're being intentionally vague in order to dismiss what I was saying.

You asked Turkish if he considered racist abuse acceptable. My answer was that I don't know why you'd ask that as no one has ever claimed that it is. Not sure why you think that means I haven't read or digested what you posted?

Thanks but I wasn't talking to you. Who said it was right? What I've said consistently is that it's not a football problem it's a social media facilitating abuse against high profile figures problem. Just because the media has decided to focus on it recently and in relation to footballers specifically doesn't change that.

We are going in circles I think because I don't think anyone has been accepting that?

Yes you've already done the bit where you avoid my questions by pretending I'm angry and that I need therapy. It's getting old. I'll try again. What does the size of a population have to do with if someone is racist or not?

I think you need to recognise that social media abuse is its own separate thing with distinct motivations, that happens to almost everyone with a profile online. Social media abuse occurs because its quick and easy to fire off anonymous messages to people. That means threats of violence, rape threats, sexist abuse, homophobia and all manner of awful stuff. As someone said earlier its the convenience and the speed that encourages this stuff which is one of the biggest issues rather than everyone still being as racist as decades ago just moving it all online. I genuinely find it quite astonishing that you don't think racism has improved from fourty years ago.

I mean it literally is getting better all the time. Social attitude surveys show how much better its gotten in only the last decade or two. No one said that racism is acceptable, just that's its absolutely absurd to try to pretend that we are heading towards the levels of racism seen in the 70s and 80s. That's clearly ridiculous.

I have twitter but I have disabled alerts so I only have a look when I feel like it. I have Facebook but I only ever use that for posting photos for family members who live far away. Personally I think a lot of the issues are to do with social media but giving the keys to the kingdom to the social media companies isn't the answer.

In what way is racism rising to the levels of the 70s and 80s?

That's what I was saying earlier. It's a generational thing and many of the younger generation love the majority of their lives on social media and it dominates their lives to a greater degree than real life does.

The absolutely huge difference between copyrighted material and abusive comments is a distinct digital footprint present for the majority of copyrighted material. That's not comporable to any number of abusive or racist comments that could be presented in any number of ways. Social media companies have no way to manually monitor posts in real time so will inevitably use AI and machine learning and it will be a safety first approach in case they miss anything. Posts will be divorced of any context and there will be mass deletions with any hint of controversy.

Isn't the major problem online abuse? So even if these scumbags felt alienated by show of support in the stadium why would that prevent them from going online and sending monkey emojis to any black players they want to?

Sure but it can't be nice if you're getting multiple death threats or rape threats against your female family members as has happened to some high profile people. As we know some real scumbags online.

I expect its a bigger issue for a younger generation who live a lot of their life online. I totally get how online abuse can make problems feel larger than they are and really you can find almost anything on twitter it's horrible. I'd still argue against those who say it's something unique to football though. Politicians get some absolutely horrendous abuse for example.

Yes that was clear when you said you thought he had a point about current levels of racism in this country being the same as the 70s and 80s. Presumably you remember at least some of the period?

And there we go we start devolving into the personal attacks and the weird idea that I am "angry" because I'm typing some words on a forum. Why does how large a population is have any correlation with if someone is racist or not? Discrimination against someone based on their race and skin colour has nothing to do with how many people are in a group. I think it's incredibly sad that you think thay no one gives a shit about racism but I think that says more about you than me.

I agree I think a large number are thick people posting in the heat of the moment something shocking to express their anger. I support measures that may make them think twice about their actions but the best and most workable solution I have heard is to have an option for verified status on twitter and then allow people like footballers to only receive replies from people who have been verified if they choose to be so. Problem solved then as anyone receiving abuse after that has effectively made the choice to receive it.

Of course he doesn't have a point. Nobody seriously believes that racism is rising to the levels of the 70s and 80s all it does is devalue the actual issue by exaggerating it to an absurd degree. He would be better served highlighting the actual issues and putting forward realistic solutions that don't involve handing the censorship of the Internet to Google and Facebook.

Hence why it is absolutely ludicrous to say that racism in football is rising to those levels.

The last I heard they, were investigating. I would imagine it takes quite a while for it to be done properly.

That sounds mildly homophobic. Didn't you promise your partner you'd stop posting on here?