Football racism: Rashford and Pogba face abuse on social media

Rashford was targeted online after missing a penalty for Manchester United

Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has said that people who post racist abuse on social media "hide behind fake identities".

It's after his striker, Marcus Rashford, was targeted online after missing a penalty against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

His comments came just days after Rashford's teammate, Paul Pogba, was also racially abused on social media for missing a penalty.

It's the fourth racism incident in just two weeks - Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham and Reading's Yakou Meite all said they received racist messages online after missing penalties in their team's most recent matches.

Twitter have said they're meeting with Manchester United to outline what they're doing to tackle it.

After Pogba was targeted last week, Lioness Manager Phil Neville called for footballers to quit social media to protest against racist abuse.

He said social media companies need to do more to tackle bullying and abuse online.

Phil Neville said: "I've lost total faith in whoever runs these social media departments, so let's send a powerful message: come off social media (for) six months. Let's see the effect it has on these social media companies."

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At the time, Manchester United and England defender Harry Maguire also took to Twitter to say he thought "social media need to do something about it" and that every account that's opened should be verified using the person's passport or driving licence to stop "...trolls making numerous accounts to abuse people".

And Manchester United Forward Marcus Rashford said: "Enough now, this needs to stop", "Manchester United is a family. Paul Pogba is a huge part of that family. You attack him you attack us all."

In July, the football charity Kick It Out, which aims to tackle racism in football, published a report which showed that racist abuse had increased by 43% last season.

In response they said: "Without immediate and the strongest possible action these cowardly acts will continue to grow."

There are charities and campaigns to help stop discrimination in football

Manchester United said they have a "zero tolerance" attitude to any form of discrimination, and that they will "work to identify the few involved in these incidents and take the strongest course of action available to us".

In the past Twitter has taken down some accounts after racist abuse, and in its terms and conditions they say it: "takes action against behaviour that targets individuals with hateful conduct".

Responding to Pogba being targeted, the social media company said:

"We're fully aware of, and share, the concerns surrounding online racist abuse towards certain footballers in the UK over recent days. We strongly condemn this unacceptable behaviour... We maintain a dialogue with both the PFA (Professional Footballers Association) and Kick it Out and are committed to working together to address abusive online and racist behaviour across the industry."

They argue that racism is a problem in all society, not just social media.