A huge number of Celtic fans expressed their horror at the online abuse Ryan Christie took after the 2-0 defeat at Livingston.
The midfielder was sent off during the first half with many of the hard of thinking blaming him for he defeat. Some took things to extremes with extreme personal abuse directed to his twitter account.
In England since the start of the season there has been a massive spotlight on racist abuse aimed at footballers on twitter with the social media platform under pressure to introduce reforms.
Despite pressure to up security such as having to use a bank account to verify identify on Twitter it seems that some users wish to use the current anonymity to attack people in the public eye.
News that Christie had closed down his Twitter account was supported by lots of messages in support of Celtic’s top scorer.
As recently as Thursday night he was in outstanding form in the 2-0 win over Cluj but that’s not enough for some Twitter users who opted to make comments that could lead to police action if it was carried out in public.
This is a absolutely disgraceful the fact that Ryan Christie had to deactivate his Twitter account due to getting abuse about getting sent off today
Every one makes mistakes and the players are people so they don’t deserve it that bad that they have take down their accounts ? pic.twitter.com/QeCVQ6eiHZ
— Insta_celts (@InstaCelts) October 6, 2019
The Bhoy’s earned the shirt and nothing you say will change that. THERES ONLY ONE RYAN CHRISTIE ??? #ryanchristie #CelticFC @ryanchristie2 pic.twitter.com/Kt9yOm3UjD
— boli ballon’dori (@freederry420) October 6, 2019
The “fans” that caused Ryan Christie to close his twitter account after 1 poor result should take a good look at themselves in the mirror. absolute cretinous behavior.
— Tam (@TamMcKenna1888) October 6, 2019
Ryan Christie has deleted his Twitter account…this is a sad all round. Very poor show that one of our players has to deactivate his account if certain clowns can’t pipe down.. pic.twitter.com/VLomenFcwM
— ? ???????James Pearson ??????? ? (@JamesPearson080) October 6, 2019
Has Ryan christie deleted his twitter . If so it’s shocking many players before him been sent off and many more will be sent off. What about the time he won us the cup get off his case.
— George Sellar (@GeorgeSellar2) October 7, 2019
Really hoping that those in our fanbase can reflect after yesterday and apologise to Ryan Christie for the online abuse he suffered
I’ve made that tackle and I assume anyone who has ever played the game has done so
Hes been a Godsend to us— OneTeam (@BG1954) October 7, 2019