Sport Parkinson’s are standing with other sports and are joining the social media boycott between Friday 30 April at 1500, and Monday 3 May at 2359 (BST).
The campaign, which aims to address the problem by raising awareness of the impact of online hate and advocating change, follows new research commissioned by BT and YouGov which shows that over one in ten people have experienced some form of online abuse in the last year and over 1.8 million have experienced threatening behaviour online in the last 12 months.
Wider data from the YouGov research showed that minority groups are more likely to receive abuse, with a quarter of the population having seen racist abuse online. Women are also significantly more likely to suffer online hate, with one in five women that received online abuse saying it was about their appearance. This has been experienced on numerous occasions by our own employee whilst doing her volunteer DJ work
The YouGov survey confirmed their feedback that a huge amount of abuse is received in private, with 22% of the population having seen or received private abuse online.
We consider any abuse unacceptable and is the antithesis of the supportive environment we want to create through our events like the Sport Parkinson’s Summer Try-Athlon.
Charlie and Garen