Manchester United’s Fred receives racist abuse after defeat by Liverpool

“The racist abuse on Fred’s post is unacceptable and we don’t want it on Instagram,” a Facebook company spokesperson said in a statement.

“We’ve removed a number of comments and taken action against the accounts that posted them. We urge people to use our safety features, including comment filters and message controls, which can meaningfully decrease the abuse people experience.

“No single thing will fix this challenge overnight but we’re committed to doing what we can to keep our community safe from abuse.”

A host of players at several Premier League clubs have been targeted online in recent months.

United previously said it had conducted a review to analyse the level of abuse players face on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and found that since September 2019 there had been a 350 per cent increase in abuse directed towards its players.

Britain said on Wednesday a planned new law would see social media firms fined up to 10 per cent of turnover or 18 million pounds if they failed to stamp out online abuse, while senior managers could also face criminal action. English football boycotted social media earlier this month in protest against the online abuse of players.