TROY DEENEY has slammed Twitter for only addressing racist abuse towards footballers once the “big guys” have been targeted.
The Silicon Valley service claims it has dealt with “more than 700 examples of hateful conduct” in the past fortnight after Paul Pogba and Tammy Abraham were abused and has announced a crackdown.
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Watford striker Deeney, 31, has not been impressed with the social platform’s efforts to address bigotry in the past.
And at one point he turned off his notifications so that he did not say something he regretted to odious abusers.
It took Manchester United star Pogba and Chelsea ace Abraham being targeted for Twitter to release the statement.
He told SunSport: “It takes that to shed the light on it but that’s the frustration.
“Why does it have to be the big guys?
“It could be anyone, unless you play for the big clubs, unless you’re high profile that’s when they take it seriously.
“I didn’t see the statement, but when I hear things like ‘trying’, interesting they’re ‘trying’.
“It’s not difficult to do and to identify what is and what isn’t. Let’s see, I’m not optimistic but let’s see.
“The big boys are involved now like your Man Uniteds and things like that so that then makes them a bit more proactive, so let’s see.
“Any help is a good help, but I’m at that point now where it’s been going on for so long that why would now be any different?
“I did (turned Twitter notifications off) at one point but I turned it back on, I’m not letting them win.”
The 6ft forward is wary of letting his young family see him saying something out of turn.
Speaking at the NFL launch, Deeney said of temporarily taking himself away from social media: “I just had to do it because I would have said something stupid.
“It’s more of a personal barrier to stop myself and also I think there’s a huge responsibility to.
I’ve got kids that follow me, I’ve got my own kids, my little brothers on social media.
Troy Deeney
“I’ve got kids that follow me, I’ve got my own kids, my little brothers on social media.
“So how can I not do something and go ‘this is acceptable’ — if they do it to somebody else then I’m part of the problem as well.
“It’s just frustrating. I know no one is brave enough to say it to my face, so you’ve got to take it for what it is.
“I’m from the era before the internet, so I know what’s real and what’s not so you’ve just got to learn to roll with the punches.”
Watford face Arsenal after the international break but he will not be fit for the match after knee surgery.
Deeney has been one of the Gunners’ fiercest critics in the past, famously accusing them of lacking “cajones”, but he reckons they had an outstanding transfer window.
He said: “They’re good. I’m a football fan. I enjoy watching people and what teams are building.
“No one in their right mind can turn around and say Arsenal didn’t have a good transfer window.
“So you’ve got to respect it. They’re a proper outfit, it’s what they should have been doing years ago.
“I’m definitely not playing against Arsenal, Watford said it’ll be several weeks.
“I just had stitches out, it was only a few.”
