Thierry Henry quitting social media over racist, abusive messages

Thierry Henry, one of the greatest footballers to ever feature for Premier League side Arsenal, the France men's national team, and in Major League Soccer, announced on Friday he's leaving social media platforms such as Twitter due to what he perceives to be inaction regarding racist abuse and other forms of bullying. 

Earlier this week, Manchester United midfielder Fred became the latest Premier League player to receive racist messages via social media after he was blamed for a goal surrendered in United's 3-1 FA Cup loss to Leicester City last Sunday. 

"Hi Guys," Henry wrote in a letter he shared online, per an ESPN piece. "From tomorrow morning I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright.

"The sheer volume of racism, bullying and resulting mental torture to individuals is too toxic to ignore. There HAS 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. Until this changes, I will be disabling my accounts across all social platforms. I'm hoping this happens soon." 

Throughout this season, the Premier League has worked with broadcast partners and the "Kick It Out" movement to eliminate varying forms of racism from all tiers of English football and punish guilty parties, such as having platforms like Twitter and Instagram ban users who send racist messages. As ESPN notes, Instagram has vowed to do a better job removing accounts linked with sending abusive language to users.

Henry stepped down as coach of MLS side CF Montreal in February because of family reasons.