A petition to require legal identification to sign up for social media in the UK is gaining momentum after some of England’s football stars received abuse following England’s heartbreaking loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 Finals.
The eyes of the football world watched the hopes and dreams of England get crushed in real time as they fell to Italy in the Finals of the Euro 2020 tournament.
Instead of coming together to celebrate the great run, though, some fans unfortunately decided to hurl abuse at the players online instead – which has led to a petition asking for ID to sign up for social media, getting hundreds of thousands of signatures on the UK Parliament’s website.
Even though it’s gained thousands of votes since the Euros defeat, the request for Parliament to consider and debate the petition was first made back in April.
Originally, the petition was created back in April by English media personality Katie Price, decrying the online abuses her disabled son Harvey was receiving.
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It’s gotten a massive shot in the arm following the July 11 loss though, especially after the English FA put out a statement condemning the online racist abuse players like Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, and Jadon Sancho all received after the Italy game.
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Price seems delighted by all the attention her request has received following the match, but a new law from the UK government to require IDs online probably won’t be happening anytime soon.
Wow! Look how many of you have now signed my #trackatroll petition! Thank you all so much! ❤🐸🌈https://t.co/XCXj9J6sde pic.twitter.com/NiBTMECOrD
— Katie Price (@KatiePrice) July 12, 2021
That’s because, despite it’s newfound popularity, the UK government already posted an official response to the request back in May of 2021 basically shutting the idea down.
“The Online Safety legislation will address anonymous harmful activity,” the official response states. “User ID verification for social media could disproportionately impact vulnerable users and interfere with freedom of expression.”
So, while Rashford, Saka, Sancho, and the rest of the England team will unfortunately have some unpleasant mentions and DMs piling up, it doesn’t seem like the UK will be requiring IDs to sign up for Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media anytime soon.
