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Kemar Roofe: Rangers striker says he gets racist abuse on social media every day

Rangers' Kemar Roofe says he continues to be subjected to racist abuse on social media in messages and emojis; Roofe highlighted racism after Rangers' Europa League defeat to Slavia Prague; Glen Kamara allegedly racially abused on the pitch during Slavia defeat

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Rangers' Kemar Roofe says he gets racist abuse every day on social media. Roofe was speaking on the Sky Sports Super 6 Podcast

Kemar Roofe has revealed he continues to be subjected to racist abuse on social media on a daily basis.

The Rangers forward first highlighted the racist abuse he received on Instagram after his side's Europa League defeat to Slavia Prague, a match which also included an alleged racist comment from Slavia's Ondrej Kudela to Roofe's team-mate Glen Kamara.

Rangers' Conor Goldson was booked along with Kudela for the confrontations which followed that alleged incident, and said it was the most angry he has ever been on a football pitch.

"I'm still getting it [racist abuse] on social media now," Roofe told the Sky Sports Super 6 podcast. "I posted a video yesterday and I'm reading all the comments and I'm still getting all of the emojis and all the words now.

"I go into my messages on Instagram and I'm getting tons and tons of messages now so I'm not sure when it's going to stop for me personally.

"What can I do? I can't do anything. I'm not going to stop going on social media."

Kemar Roofe was sent off for this challenge on Slavia Prague goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar
Image: Roofe was sent off for this challenge in Rangers' defeat to Slavia Prague which saw an allegation of racist abuse towards Glen Kamara

Instagram told Sky Sports News it removed a number of comments and accounts as part of their ongoing investigation into the initial racist abuse of Roofe.

But the player feels the fact it is continuing means social media companies still need to take more responsibility in controlling the content on their platforms.

"Social media companies have created an absolute machine. You can use it for good or you can use it for evil but the companies need to control it and manage it," he said.

"It's too easy for people to go on social media and abuse someone else. Some people can't handle the type of comments that I'm getting.

"Luckily for myself I can ignore it and just go about my business but there are lots of people who can't do that.

"To receive comments every day, abusing you, something needs to be done by the social media companies."

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This is the message from Sky Sports presenters and reporters, who have united in supporting a new campaign aimed at raising awareness of online hate and abuse on social media.

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