Rotherham United have joined colleagues from across the world of football in a social media boycott which takes effect from 3pm on Friday 30th April 2021.
The purpose of the boycott is to highlight the need to bring to an end the anonymous culture of abuse which has reared its ugly head across a number of social media platforms in recent times.
We strongly feel that the abhorrent actions of an individual online should be treated in the same way as the crime would be treated on the streets and in-person.
This is not Rotherham United disconnecting from our supporters, however.
We will look to keep you as up-to-date as always through our official club website and details of what we’ll be doing to achieve that can be found below.
Enough is enough.
Will you continue to publish matchday information and post-match interviews on the club website?
Yes. Whilst none of the links to these will appear on social media during the period of the boycott, all of the regular news and interviews will appear as normal on www.themillers.co.uk.
I usually follow the club’s progress on a matchday on the live social media feed of the game, will that not be taking place this weekend?
As a result of the boycott, we will be moving our live matchday updates away from Twitter and onto a dedicated ‘live blog’ page on the club website.
Don’t worry, it will run minute-by-minute as per our normal feeds and will include pictures from our club photographer Jim Brailsford to help us paint the picture of the game.
You’ll be able to access it via the ‘Match Centre’ which can be found HERE.
I always look for the starting XI on Facebook and Twitter an hour before kick off, how will I see who is playing against Blackburn Rovers?
We'll publish a full team news article on the website at 2pm on Saturday in place of the usual social media posts.
Will any of the players be posting anything on their own personal accounts, either pre or post-match?
No. Our first team players and staff are fully supportive of the decision to take part in this boycott in an attempt to make people more accountable for their actions on social media moving forwards.
Will the club be coming back onto social media after the boycott and if so, when?
We will. These are just the first steps of action that we as a collective football community are taking and whilst we hope that this initiative makes an impact, we know that social media can be a fantastic tool to engage with our supporters.
We’ll be back posting on social media from Tuesday 4th May 2021, but knowing full well that the battle to make people accountable for their actions online is far from over.