From 3pm on Friday, football clubs, players and media will boycott social media over the bank holiday weekend, and Jurgen Klopp believes it is a “very important” thing to do.
In a response to a rise in abuse on social media, and in particular racist abuse, a boycott will take place over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms from 3pm.
This Is Anfield will be taking part, with the need to raise awareness for the issue and, hopefully, prompt a response from the companies involved in tackling abuse paramount.
Klopp has been a vocal critic of social media throughout his time at Liverpool, but the manager clearly understands its importance and the value of connecting with fans to his players.
And speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, Klopp gave his backing to the boycott.
“I think I’ve said it before, I’m not the most experienced person with social media,” he told reporters.
“But of course, we had cases where players faced some weird things on social media. Yes, I had some talks as well with the boys then.
“It didn’t happen too often, because we have a pretty good setup for that, smarter people than me, people who know better about the issues could show up and all these kinds of things.
“It’s just the world of a football player is pretty public anyway.
“You can ask players from the past what kind of life they had around football games and how much joy they had.
“That has all disappeared for a number of reasons – one of those is social media.
“It gets used by a lot of people on this planet, so it’s a very important thing to do and I support the boycott, the club supports the boycott and I’m happy that we all together set a sign.
“Because things in this department for sure need to change. We cannot influence all of it, but as much power as we have as a unit, we should try to use in this moment.
“I really hope it has an impact.”
* This Is Anfield will be taking part in the social media boycott – make sure you visit the website and download our App for all our usual updates, news, analysis and reaction from Sunday’s match.
