Ronaldo & Maguire most abused players on Twitter - report - www.asempanews.com

The first came on the day Ronaldo rejoined Manchester United on 27 August 2021, generating three times more tweets than any other day (188,769), of which 3,961 were abusive

On this day the Portugal forward was mentioned in 90% of all tweets aimed at Premier League footballers and 97% of abusive tweets.

Harry Maguire tweet Maguire's tweet followed a run of bad results for Manchester UnitedOn that occasion, 2,903 abusive tweets were sent - 10.6% of the total that day - with many users reacting to Maguire's post with insulting or demeaning language.

Newcastle defender Ciaran Clark, now on loan at Sheffield United, was sent off against Norwich in November, with 78% of the abusive tweets he received coming on this day.

How did the study work?As part of its preparation to regulate tech giants under new online safety laws, Ofcom teamed up with the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, to analyse more than 2.3 million tweets directed at Premier League footballers over the first five months of the 2021-22 season.

"These stark findings uncover the extent to which footballers are subjected to vile abuse across social media," said Dr Bertie Vidgen, lead author of the report and head of online safety at the Alan Turing Institute.

Twitter says it welcomes such research to help improve conversations on its platforms, while also pointing to a number of online abuse and safety features it has implemented to stop such posts reaching individuals.