The most targeted player was Jude Bellingham. Bukayo Saka and Kobbie Mainoo experienced the highest proportion of racism compared to the total number of posts mentioning them. And according to a report by BBC Sport, the platform pushing that content to millions of users was not acting by accident.
The activist group Hope Not Hate analyzed more than 300,000 posts on X, formerly Twitter, during the 2026 World Cup. Researchers found more than 5,500 explicitly racist posts targeting England players. The group argues that X's recommender algorithm pushed toxic content into millions of feeds because posts that provoke anger and outrage generate more interaction, keep users on the platform longer, and can ultimately help drive advertising revenue.
"X is actually benefiting from this hate," said Patrik Hermansson, senior researcher at Hope Not Hate, in comments to BBC Sport. "It drives engagement on its platform and it effectively uses its algorithm to elevate and show it to more of its users. They show up in the recommendation feed - they are not obscure corners of this website, they are front and centre. That's a choice it doesn't have to make and yet it does."
X was approached for comment but had not responded at the time of the report.
Djed Spence, who has converted to Islam in recent years, was also subjected to a distinct stream of anti-Muslim abuse, according to Hope Not Hate. Researchers also examined how abuse gathered in the replies to individual high-profile posts on the platform, finding that a relatively small number of original posts generated enormous volumes of replies containing hateful content.
The Football Association responded to the report. "All players have the right to play without being exposed to hateful, discriminatory and distressing content online," an FA spokesperson said. "We want service providers to take all of the necessary steps to create a safer life online for everyone."
Hope Not Hate said current efforts to tackle online abuse focus too heavily on what happens after a racist post has already been seen. Players can block users, report messages, and platforms can suspend accounts, but Hermansson said those measures do not address the core problem of how abusive content is amplified in the first place.
"X doesn't take racism seriously enough," he said. "We've seen it for a number of years now. There is no change or improvement."
Hermansson said social media companies already have the tools to change how their algorithms recommend content, particularly during periods when abuse is surging. He described the scale of the problem as manageable. "It's actually a relatively small number of accounts and originating tweets that then get tons of replies," he said. "I think it's entirely feasible to stop this, or a vast amount of it."
One specific option the group proposed was downranking posts that attract large volumes of abusive replies, which would limit how many users those posts are recommended to. Before the new Premier League season, Hope Not Hate called on Ofcom, the UK's media regulator, to use its existing powers to pressure platforms into making those kinds of changes.
The report arrives as the 2026 World Cup has put renewed attention on the treatment of players both on the pitch and online. England's squad, which includes several Black players who have been frequent targets of online abuse in recent years, drew the heaviest volume of racist posts among teams studied. The findings add to a years-long pattern that advocacy groups say has gone largely unaddressed by the platforms responsible for distributing the content.
