The government has announced a change of law to extend football banning orders to those who are abusive in connection with football on social media.

The prime minister called on technology companies to step up their response to tackling online abuse and provide data to police on racist trolling of England players.

The government, Premier League and football authorities also plan to work together to tackle online abuse of footballers ahead of the Online Safety Bill.

For the first time, the Government will amend legislation to extend the use football bans so online abusers can be banned from stadiums for up to 10 years.

“We are introducing legislation that will force social media companies to take responsibility and action where this vile behaviour exists on their platforms or face substantial financial penalties if they fail in their duty to do so,” said prime minister Boris Johnson. “We are also working closely with the football and police authorities to ensure we can track and take action against online abusers and will ban them from football grounds in the same way we would if they had committed these offences on our streets.”

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden spoke of how he has heard repeatedly from footballers about the impact of racist abuse flooding their social media at all hours of the day.

“The tech firms know what is coming down the track with our tough new Online Safety laws but must use their ingenuity and considerable resources to stop this racist online abuse now,” said Dowden. "We’re going to work with football authorities this coming season to drive the change that’s needed, and we will make sure these individuals are nowhere near our national game.”

He added: “Social media firms must improve safety measures on their sites and ensure they help the authorities find and punish these racist abusers. It’s time for them to step up so their platforms can’t be used as weapons of hate.”

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