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'They allow racist abuse to float freely' - Ferdinand calls on social networks to take action

Former England striker Les Ferdinand has challenged social media giants to tackle racism on their platforms with the ruthlessness they have shown towards Covid-19 conspiracy theorists.

Arsenal great Ian Wright became the latest high-profile footballer to complain about being targeted for abuse, which has led to a police investigation in Ireland.

Now Ferdinand, who starred in the Premier League for QPR, Newcastle United and Tottenham, says racism from keyboard warriors will persist unless stringent steps are taken by tech giants.

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He told Stats Perform: "One of the things I've been looking at, with all this Covid situation, I'm seeing things taken down off social media where people put an opinion about what they think COVID-19's all about, and that's been taken down off YouTube, that's been taken down off Facebook.