Twitter hasn't removed tweets hurling racist abuse at footballers, including the N-word, monkey emojis and calls for them to be deported.
New research shows that the platform didn't act on 99 out of 100 racist tweets that were reported to it in the week before the World Cup.
After being flagged on Wednesday, only one was removed, a tweet that repeated a racial slur 16 times. All of the others remained live this weekend.
The abuse was directed at 43 players including England stars Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka, who were among several players targeted for the Euro 2020 final.
The analysis, conducted by researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate CCDH and seen by the Observer, included 100 tweets reported to Twitter. Of those, 11 used the N-word to describe footballers, 25 used monkey or banana emojis directed at players, 13 called for players to be deported and 25 attacked players by telling them to go back to other countries. Thirteen tweets targeted footballers for their English skill.
The findings come at a turbulent time for Twitter and will lead to concerns about players being targeted during the World Cup.
Since Elon Musk took over on 27 October, thousands of staff have left the company. Musk said in an update to the platform's rules on hate speech last week that negative hate tweets would be demonetized but not necessarily removed, which is why he insists that moderation capabilities remain strong and he is committed to preventing the platform from becoming a free-for-all hellscape. He said that users won't find the tweet unless they seek it out, which is no different from the rest of the internet. It is not clear how this will be applied to abuse that tags individuals or mentions them by name, who are likely to see the post without seeking it out.
All tweets identified in the CCDH's analysis mentioned footballers by name or tagged their Twitter handle. There were many posts beneath official tweets from football clubs or news sites.
They included tweets saying footballers should go back to Africa likening players to apes and chimps and calling for them to be deported. The in-app reporting tool used to report tweets was used to flag the tweets.
Twitter was contacted for comment but did not respond. Much of its communications team has been laid off.
The content policy on its website says it prohibits targeting others with repeated slurs and that in cases of severe repetitive usage of slurs, the primary intent is to harass tweets.
It prohibits the dehumanization of a group of people based on characteristics such as race.