Steve Bruce was talking ahead of Newcastle’s game against Chelsea on Monday evening and revealed the death threats that he has had and that the social media companies have to do more.
“I don’t go on (social media), but of course people close to me do and they are sensitive towards their father, of course. Yep, I’ve had that to deal with.
“We’ve got to police it better and there are some vulnerable people out there. When I see the nature of some of it, it’s totally and utterly vile. Some of the stuff I’ve had has been obscene. You feel the hatred and something has to be done.
“When I see an experienced referee – whatever you might think of Mike Dean, nobody deserves that. He gets a decision wrong and it was in the last 30 minutes of the game and nothing really hinged on it, but he feels the need to have to step down this weekend.
🗣"Social media is a really powerful weapon for everyone concerned"
Newcastle boss Steve Bruce talks about his own experience with online abuse and how the social media companies need to clamp down on it and police it better pic.twitter.com/q7fyFGNKnb
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) February 11, 2021
“For everybody, these big companies have to police it better and find out who these idiots and morons are who send this vile abuse and make them be punished.
“The abuse I’ve had, death threats and all this sort of stuff – when I see the referee become a target for it because he has made a mistake, people threatening his life, it’s absolutely obscene and totally ridiculous.”
Asked about the nature of the abuse he had received, Bruce said: “I’m not sure how far back the abuse goes, but I just know that in conversations with my family over the last few days when we’ve been talking about the Mike Dean situation, it was brought to my attention that I’ve had it too.
“It’s really horrible stuff, which I couldn’t really get my breath with, really, things like someone saying they hope I die of Covid and all of this.”