Incident occurred following Saturday's 3-2 Scottish Cup win over Lowland League side Bonnyrigg Rose; another unnamed player also received abuse following last Saturday's league game against Hearts; Championship side have reported both incidents and are considering all other options.
Sunday 10 January 2021 13:59, UK
Dundee's on-loan Celtic player Jonathan Afolabi received 'vile' online racist abuse following Saturday's 3-2 Scottish Cup win over Lowland League side Bonnyrigg Rose.
The 20-year-old shared seven disgusting messages - sent to him by one individual - on his Instagram story where he was called the 'n-word' and "a f*****g monkey".
The Scottish Championship side were seconds from being knocked out of the Scottish Cup before Republic of Ireland U21 Afolabi came off the bench to score a stoppage-time equaliser and send the game to extra-time.
It is not the only racist incident at Dundee this week with another unnamed player receiving abuse following last Saturday's league game against Hearts.
It is understood the club have reported both incidents and are considering all other options.
A statement on the Dundee website read: "Following last night's Scottish Cup victory over Bonnyrigg Rose we were made aware of vile racist messages that had been directed to one of our players.
"Dundee Football Club utterly condemns racism in any form.
"Racism has no place in society. We have reported these unacceptable messages and will look into what further steps can be taken.
"Sadly, this isn't the first incident in the last seven days which has seen one of our players being subjected to abuse.
"After last weekend's match with Heart of Midlothian, another player received disgusting messages which have also been reported.
"As a club we have zero tolerance for these abusive messages and give our players our full support."
On the abuse, a Facebook company spokesperson said: "These comments were reported and removed. Following a review of the account, we have now blocked this user.
"We don't want any form of discrimination on our apps, including this abhorrent abuse which violates our community standards.
"Over the last few years, we have invested billions in safety, tripled the size of our safety and security team to 35,000, and built artificial intelligence technology to proactively find and remove this type of content.
"We recently partnered with Kick It Out on its Take A Stand campaign, where we announced a series of action-focused initiatives centred around reporting and education.
"We have also introduced technology to give people more control over their experience, including a setting for public figures to prevent people they don't know from messaging them.
"Discrimination is a societal problem and we need collective action. To learn more about how you can take a stand, report discrimination or access educational resources, add 07432140310 to your WhatsApp contacts and message 'hi'."
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