Crystal Palace and other Premier League clubs will join leagues, governing bodies and organisations across English football and wider sport to boycott social media this weekend and manager Hodgson said he is in favour of the action.
“I'm personally 100% behind it. I applaud the people who have made quite a strong decision to turn their backs on it. It is a clear statement that people in football are not prepared to accept that anonymous people can say what they like.
“I find it very difficult myself to appreciate how much these players are able to take and how strong they can be in the face of such vile abuse from anonymous people. It’s tough enough when confronted [in person by someone] and you can argue your case and get some better feeling on ‘why am I deserving of abuse?’ But all these anonymous people – we don’t even know who they are.”
Hodgson has spoken out recently on how abhorrent racial abuse has affected his players. He continued on the issue, saying: “[Before the Aston Villa away game in 19/20] Wilf [Zaha] woke up to the most vile abuse possible. It affected him – he was mentally challenged, if you like, by that level of abuse. But what really affected me was when they tracked the person down it was a 12-year-old boy.
“It makes you wonder where society is going and what sort of platforms allow a 12-year-old boy who maybe doesn’t know better – what sort of platform is this that you can get on and do these things?
“It’s got worse, it’s not going to go away unless people do what they’re doing - taking a firm stance, stepping away.”