Joey Barton, an English former professional football player and manager, was recently convicted. He widely shared inappropriate and offensive social media posts targeting Eni Aluko, Lucy Ward, and Jeremy Vine. The court convicted him on six counts of sending wasting abuse, but acquitted him on six additional counts. Eni Aluko, former international footballer and whistleblower, expressed her happiness with the verdict. She hopes it at last provides closure to a difficult two-year process that was wrought with emotional pain for her and her family.
Barton, who has more than 2.7 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), immediately used his platform to denounce the move. Specifically, he went after these diversity and inclusion schemes, zeroing in on Aluko. Following the conviction, Aluko stressed that justice demands accountability for what Barton did. She hopes the result of this trial will deliver a strong message. The rest need to know that they’ll pay a price if they act like these guys did.
Emotional Toll and Hope for Change
After the conviction was announced Eni Aluko expressed her sense of relief, explaining how this made her feel “10 times lighter.” The last two years have had an outsized emotional impact on her. Before he gets to the mean, abusive posts, she wishes Barton stops to consider his past encouraging, affirming feedback to her.
“But I hope that person who sent me all those lovely messages, I hope he gets back to whoever that person was.” – Eni Aluko
Aluko is no stranger to the mental health effects tied to social media harassment. She underscored the deadly consequences that this kind of behavior can lead to. She called on all of us to be more aware of the words we use.
“I would say that you really need to take into account the impact it has on somebody’s mental health. There’s been really tragic examples of what social media abuse can do to somebody.” – Eni Aluko
She wants the jury verdict against Barton to make people think twice about their online actions.
Addressing Social Media Accountability
Aluko has been clear about the responsibility social media platforms have in continuing to spread hate speech. She argues that platforms like X are not taking sufficient action to prevent abuse, effectively rewarding users who engage in harmful behavior.
“Social media companies like X aren’t listening,” – Eni Aluko
She’s a big proponent of increased oversight and regulation. She wants regulators, including Ofcom, to hit big tech with multimillion-pound fines unless they do enough to address the widespread hate speech across their platforms.
“It’s the reward system, it’s become a business,” – Eni Aluko
Aluko paints a portrait of Barton as an intelligent man, deeply conscious of what he’s doing. She argues that his posts were more than just irresponsible, but intentional and strategic efforts to take her down.
“Joey Barton is an intelligent man. I think he knows what he’s doing,” – Eni Aluko
Along with her condemnation of Barton’s bombast, she highlighted how the amplification of figures like Barton allows others to follow suit and spread their damaging rhetoric.
“One of the problems with social media is that the amplification of people like Joey Barton makes people think they can say the same,” – Eni Aluko
Leave a Reply