Together as the British Basketball League (BBL) and Women’s British Basketball League (WBBL) we will be joining our sporting colleagues across football, cricket, rugby and others, including our broadcast partner Sky Sports, in the social media boycott from 3pm Friday 30 April through 11:59pm Monday 3 May.

LIVE MAY MADNESS COVERAGE

Updates from our Newcastle Eagles WBBL team’s May Madness Play-Offs Quarter-Final on Saturday will instead be posted on our website.

The games will still be broadcast live for free throughout the social media boycott, which includes YouTube, on the Sky Sports website and Sky Sports app.

All May Madness games are also available watch live and on-demand on the BBL Player website and BBL Player app, which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Apps.

Newcastle Eagles, the Eagles Community Foundation and Vertu Motors Arena stand in unity with the BBL, WBBL and all the sporting community by supporting the social media boycott this weekend.

Sport has the power to bring all communities together and, as we have experienced through the growth and camaraderie of the British basketball community, social media has the power that allows us to reach and connect with our supporters – as it does for all sports – in immediate and vital ways.

But with that power comes responsibility and the current inaction by social media companies in the face of relentless hateful and abusive attacks by cowards protected by this very inaction is inexcusable.

No one should be subject to the kind of harassment and abuse that we have seen people experience. It goes against every tenet of basic human decency and we join the calls for social media companies to do more and for the UK government to ensure the Online Safety Bill gives sufficient powers to Ofcom to ensure social media companies can be held to account should they continue to fail in their responsibilities.