Sacha Baron Cohen urges Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey to take action on racism against England footballers

Borat star has long been a vocal critic of Zuckerberg’s

Sacha Baron Cohen has implored social media moguls to take action against the racism on their platforms following the racist abuse of England’s football players.

Following an early goal from Luke Shaw, the England team had their Euros hopes dashed on Sunday night (11 July) after an Italy equaliser in the second half led to extra time and penalties.

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed their penalties, leading to an Italy win at Wembley.

In the wake of the match, Rashford, Sancho and Saka have received torrents of racist abuse from some England fans. Saka – who missed the fifth and decisive penalty – has been especially targeted.

Tweeting from his personal account, the Borat star – who has long been a vocal critic of Facebook – urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to stamp out the racism spread on their platforms.

“Hey Mark Zuckerberg & @jack Dorsey - - Facebook and Twitter are spreading racist attacks on these Black athletes,” he wrote.

“Online racism leads to real-world hate crimes. It’s time to rid racism from your platforms once and for all. #StopHateForProfit.”

The 49-year-old accompanied his post with images of Rashford, Sancho and Saka.

In a statement issued to Metro.co.uk, Twitter condemned the abuse spread directed at England players via its platform.

The statement claimed it had “swiftly removed over 1000 Tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating our rules – the vast majority of which we detected ourselves proactively using technology”.

Similarly, a spokesperson for Facebook – which also owns Instagram – told the publication that it had and will continue to remove comments and accounts “directing abuse at England’s footballers”.

“In addition to our work to remove this content, we encourage all players to turn on Hidden Words, a tool which means no one has to see abuse in their comments or DMS,” it continued.

Baron Cohen is the latest star to speak up for the England players amid the racist abuse. Liam Gallagher, Anne-Marie and Piers Morgan have all shown support for the three footballers.