Social media can be a horrible place at times, with people from all over the globe free to interact with anyone, and post near enough whatever they like, regardless of whom it could affect.
Over the past couple of years, the fight against social media trolls has become a bigger battle, with athletes in particular facing thousands of comments every day from people who deliberately try to insult or hurt them, through hateful comments or messages.
Lewis Hamilton has called for those in charge to make more of an effort to stop these trolls, labelling social media a ‘toxic place’.
“Social media is getting more and more toxic as the years go on,” he said.
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“We should all probably get off it ultimately.
“Mental health is such a prominent thing right now. I know so many people are reading their comments and what people say and it is hurtful.”
The Brit has revealed that he does not read any of his comments, but he knows that not enough is being done to crack down on individuals who choose to be hurtful online.
“Fortunately, I don’t read that stuff but the media platforms definitely need to do more, particularly for young kids and women.
“But at the moment, they’re not doing that so I think this will just continue,” he suggested.
Some people have suggested the idea of forcing social media users to link their accounts to something that identifies them, as such removing their anonymity, for example a form of photo ID must be submitted to set up an account.
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The majority of hateful comments in sport come from accounts without a profile picture of the user or anything identifying the individual, meaning any backlash from their social media presence is unlikely to affect them in the real world, which must change.
In July 2021, Formula One launched the ‘Drive it Out’ campaign in a bid to reduce abuse within the sport, however we are yet to see this pay dividends to the extent that should be expected.
Outside of social media, toxicity exists in the sport more and more each year, with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in particular being greeted by boos this year at venues that favour the other driver.
For example, Verstappen was booed at Silverstone, and Hamilton received a hostile welcome in Austria due to its Red Bull links.