{"id":15858,"date":"2022-02-20T09:03:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T14:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=15858"},"modified":"2022-02-20T09:03:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T14:03:42","slug":"lewis-hamilton-social-media-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=15858","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton wants social media sites to curb online abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicholas Latifi and Lewis Hamilton<\/a> ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix<\/a>. (Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton urged social media companies to do more to stop the spread of online abuse after fellow Formula One driver Nicholas Latifi received death threats following the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Latifi crashed his Williams car with a few laps left and with Hamilton coasting toward an eighth F1<\/a> title. The incident led to a safety car, and Max Verstappen<\/a> overtook the seven-time F1 champion Hamilton on the last lap to win the world title amid huge controversy.<\/p>\n

Although blameless, Latifi was hounded online as outrage grew at how Hamilton’s title was so suddenly lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I don’t think there’s been a huge change or shift, or enough work that’s been done by these social platforms. We still have to apply pressure for them to make changes,\u201d Hamilton said Friday after the unveiling of Mercedes<\/a>‘ 2022 car. \u201cMental health is a real thing, and through these social platforms people are experiencing abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one deserves that and that should never be tolerated,\u201d the 37-year-old British driver added. “(Social networks) are able to change these things and make changes, but they don’t seem to do it quick enough. So, I think we just need to continue to apply pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latifi was so affected that he hired bodyguards<\/a> for a sightseeing trip to London<\/a> with his girlfriend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in touch with Nicholas, he has my full support and I know how difficult it can be in those situations,” Hamilton said. “It\u2019s important for him to know he has support from people around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes driver George Russell, who was previously Latifi\u2019s teammate at Williams, agreed with Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think more needs to be done for athletes, for people in the spotlight because people behind the computer, behind the keyboard think they have a right to say what they like,\u201d Russell said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost forgotten that everybody is human … Something really does need to be done and I felt really, really bad for Nicholas.”<\/p>\n

Russell had at times also struggled in the same car.<\/p>\n

\u201cMistakes happen and I know firsthand how difficult that specific Williams car was to drive,\u201d he said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t deserve at all to get what he received so definitely more needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latifi, a 26-year-old Canadian, spoke about the impact the threats had on his mental state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was back in London after the race and I had security with me when I went to Winter Wonderland with my girlfriend,\u201d he said Tuesday. \u201cYou have to take the threats seriously because you don\u2019t know what might happen and it is just an unfortunate reality of the world we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latifi had anticipated receiving abuse and so deleted Instagram and Twitter from his phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing social media as a channel to attack somebody with messages of hate, abuse and threats of violence is shocking, and something I am calling out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hamilton also removed himself from his platforms following Abu Dhabi, re-emerging only two weeks ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new 23-race season begins on March 20 at the Bahrain GP.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

More AP auto racing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicholas Latifi and Lewis Hamilton ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. (Getty Images) Lewis Hamilton urged social media companies to do more to stop the spread of online abuse after fellow Formula One driver Nicholas Latifi received death threats following the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Latifi crashed his Williams car with a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}