Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo are willing to join a three-day social media boycott instigated by English football and supported by other sports.
English football’s governing body, leagues and professional organisations plan to avoid using social media between 3pm on Friday and the end of Monday, in protest of the discrimination and abuse many professionals continue to suffer on the online platforms.
Other key organisers of UK sports have committed to joining the boycott as well, along with some media organisations who cover those various sports.
F1 has not communicated any plans but the UK’s exclusive full-season broadcaster Sky Sports F1 is included in its parent company’s wider pledge.
Asked about the boycott plan on Thursday ahead of the Portuguese Grand Prix, seven-time world champion Hamilton said: “I haven’t made any plans but I think for me it’s clear that racism continues to be an issue.
“Social media platforms do need to do more in order to combat this, and so I’m fully supportive of the initiative.
“If me also doing it helps put pressure on those platforms in order to help fight against it then for sure, I’m happy to do so.”
Seven-time grand prix winner Ricciardo said he was “certainly considering” being part of the boycott as well.
“Obviously if it helps, like all things, raise awareness and spread the message I’ll put it out there, and hold some with a bit more accountability for sure,” he said.
“I think that’s important. It’s like when you grow up, if you don’t have something nice to say then don’t say it at all and sometimes it can be that simple.”
“I do believe that social media companies need to do more. They’re able to take steps in helping create an anti-racist society” :: Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton has been F1’s leading anti-discrimination voice in recent years and was a pivotal part of F1 joining the global swell of movements championing diversity.
He has also pushed his Mercedes team towards embracing several new initiatives of its own.
Hamilton is comfortably F1’s largest social media presence, dwarfing even F1 itself with 22million followers on Instagram and 6.3million on Twitter.
He said that he had suffered his own discrimination on social media in the past and adjusted how he used the platforms as a result.
“I was subject to abuse a long time ago at a time when I was younger, when I was reading social media like many people do, trying to engage with people,” said Hamilton.
“But there was a period of time where I had to understand that we can’t read every comment that is on there and you can’t take it personally. If you let those things get to you it can ruin your day.
“I took a period of time where I stepped a lot back from it and generally don’t go searching for that stuff, or for validation.
“I don’t feel like I need validation, I know I’ve got amazing support from many fans that follow me and I’m super grateful for the support I do get.
“I do believe that social media companies need to do more. They’re able to take steps in helping create an anti-racist society, that’s what we’ve really got to be pushing toward.
“I don’t know all the details, but I’m really proud to hear that there are so many organisations getting involved.
“I’m not sure why F1 is not a part of that but I heard Sky is.
“I probably will follow and support that this weekend.”
Ricciardo’s team-mate Lando Norris said all F1 drivers were conscious of the problem of online abuse, though he had yet to decide if being part of the boycott was the right choice for him.
“It’s definitely something I guess we all struggle with at some point, the abuse,” said Norris.
“Everyone will struggle with at some point seeing different messages and so on.
“For us it’s maybe not as bad as being in a stadium, whether it’s football or other sports, but it’s something we struggle with.
“We’ll definitely do things, we’ll take actions as drivers, as a team, with sponsors and partners and everything.
“It’s definitely something we’ll speak up against. Whether boycotting or not is the answer to that I’m not too sure.
“But there’s definitely things we can do elsewhere in other areas to be against it and get those keyboard warriors not hiding and typing such bad stuff.”
