Former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry says he is removing himself from social media because of racism and bullying across platforms.
Henry, 43, posted a message to his 2.3m followers on Twitter on Friday saying the problem was “too toxic to ignore”.
He said he would not return to social media until “people in power regulate platforms with the same vigor and ferocity when you infringe copyright”.
Henry added that there had to be some accountability.
“It is far too easy to create an account, use it to bully and harass without consequence, and still remain anonymous,” wrote the Frenchman.
“The sheer volume of racism, bullying and resulting mental torture to individuals is too toxic to ignore.”
Henry won two Premier League titles with Arsenal, where he played between 1999 and 2007.
Last July, Henry made a statement by taking a knee for the first eight minutes and 46 seconds of a match against the New England Revolution.
He also showed solidarity following the death of George Floyd, who died in early 2020 after a Minnesota police officer pressed his knee on his neck for the same amount of time as Henry knelt.
He also explained the abuse he received after moving to the New York Red Bulls in an interview last year.
“At one point, I said people didn’t see my color anymore because I played football, because I was, in brackets, famous,” Henry said.
“When I came to play in the US, my colour came back because no one could recognise me, depending on which state we were in. My colour came back. It was the first time again that I felt like I left my neighbourhood.
When I arrived in New York, some people could recognise me and some couldn’t.
When you ask for a cab, he looks and sees you are a certain color and puts the light on and suddenly he isn’t free anymore. You’re left like, ‘Hang on I’m alone here. It hit me again.”
