As social media has become more accessible and prevalent, we have, unfortunately, seen a meteoric rise in the the racist abuse of prominent black personalities on various platforms.  The issue has been particularly severe with (but not limited to) the targeting of black professional football (soccer) players. These young men, who have committed no crime other than have the "gall" to be young, black and successful, have been asked to put up with and accept the existence of grotesque racial abuse from strangers on the Internet. This practice has not been limited to current players but also to black ex-pros and coaches who have dared speak out for equality or even make a football-based statement that a group of trolls disagree with. Beyond this, the practice has been seen bleeding through to target other high-profile members of the black community, from politicians to activists, actors and even members of the public who happen to find some small iota of fame in the online world.

One of the most common methods the perpetrators of this abuse use is to post a series of "monkey" emojis, either the side-on variant from the "animal" category, the "gorilla" animal emoji or (ironically), the "Hear No Evil/See No Evil/Speak No Evil" monkey face emojis.

Since social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram seem unable or unwilling to crack down on this abuse, or expose perpetrators to the authorities, this petition is proposing a simpler action. All we ask of the companies behind smartphone production is to remove these items from the emoji keyboard.  At this point, their negative value as tools of abuse outweighs any positive value they may have for amusement or novelty.

We are under no illusion that this will not be a cure for the racism endemic to social media or society in general, but, in the same way that when a child misbehaves, you take away their toys, removing the tools that abusers use to spread their particular brand of hate, could prove, at the very least, provide some short-term relief to those affected.