Following England's Euro 2020 final penalty shootout, social media companies reportedly handed over personal information of those accused of posting racist sentiments online.
According to reports, after five people were arrested in the aftermath of Sunday's final, Twitter and Facebook have been 'working very closely' with investigative police officers to look into scores of people's racist posts.
According to the New York Times, if authorities request information, the tech giants will reveal the names, emails, and IP addresses of individuals who are suspected of sending discriminatory messages.
On Thursday, the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) provided an update on its investigation following abusive posts targeting Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka in the wake of the Three Lions' defeat on penalties to Italy.
Three of the suspects have already been publicly identified - plasterer Brad Pretty, 49, from Folkestone, Kent; estate agent Andrew Bone, 37, from Sale, Cheshire; and children's football coach Nick Scott, 50, from Powick, Worcestershire.
A fourth suspect, a 37-year-old man from Ashton-upon-Mersey in Greater Manchester, was then arrested yesterday, officials said, before a fifth, a 42-year-old man from Runcorn was then detained by police in Cheshire today.
Twitter has since removed more than 1,000 posts in the 24 hours during and after the match and suspended a number of accounts for violating its rules. Facebook also confirmed that abusive comments on its platform and Instagram have been removed.
Data from analytics company Crisp, which works with top-flight football clubs, found England players faced 12,500 hate messages on social media during Euro 2020, including banana and monkey emojis.
The company claims that 10,000 accounts targeted players directly on Twitter and Instagram, with comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and serious personal abuse and threats of damage, including to family members.
Instagram's chief executive, Adam Mosseri, said that errors in the company's identification algorithms had allowed abusive posts to get through, but that they had now been corrected.
He explained: 'It is absolutely not OK to send racist emojis, or any kind of hate speech, on Instagram'.
A UKFPU statement read: 'Following England's defeat against Italy on Sunday a torrent of racist comments aimed at some of the team's black players appeared on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
'A hate crime investigation is under way by the UKFPU, with a dedicated team of investigators working their way through a large number of reports from across the country.
'So far, dozens of data applications have been submitted to social media companies and four people have been arrested by local police forces.'
Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs' Council football policing lead, said: 'The racial abuse aimed at our own players following Sunday night's game is utterly vile and has quite rightly shocked and appalled people across the country.
'Our England team have been true role models during the tournament, conducting themselves with professionalism and dignity.
'I'm disgusted there are individuals out there who think it's acceptable to direct such abhorrent abuse at them, or at anybody else.
The UKFPU investigation is well underway, and the search for individuals responsible continues. We're collaborating closely with social media platforms, which are providing us with the information we need to move forward with investigations.
'If we discover that you are the perpetrator of this atrocity, we will follow you down and hold you accountable for your heinous deeds.'
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