Hey, no hating on social media; totally not cool; very, very hurtful. I think it’s so easy to hide behind a keyboard and of course everyone’s got an opinion and everyone should be entitled to their opinion but let’s keep it cool on social media. Everyone is working hard, trying hard and let’s make the world a better place. Don’t be one of those people

Just jumping in and supporting the no social hate campaign. A lot of people in this sport, and all sports around the world receive a lot of flack; we love the banter, we love the jokes, we love the passion that you see on social media from 99% of the fans but there’s no denying that sometimes you see people that over-step the mark, get personal, threaten violence and even in some extreme cases throw some death threats at some people. I know everyone in this sport, Supercars, and everyone is just normal people like you or me and they’ve got families, they’ve got friends, they’re doing a job and in fact in my opinion they are some of the best people in the world at doing those jobs. No one no matter what they do deserves to get hated on relentlessly by some people on social media. We don’t need to be those kind of people; the world is a good place and you wouldn’t say those sorts of things if you were stood in front of them looking at them in the face. Hiding behind something on social media because you think you’re protected just isn’t cool. We don’t need to do that, we don’t want to be those people. Those kind of guys are not the people we respect and not the people that we want to look up to. Be part of good positive chance, be nice on social media, please continue absolutely bringing the value that you guys do and the passion and the banter that we see so often because we all read it and love it, believe me and I like to even give it back as well. But there’s no need for getting personal, there’s no need for abuse and let’s just be cool because we’re all doing a sport that we love and we’re just all trying to do our best job in it, so no social hate and let’s try and be a proactive change going forward.

The no social hate campaign is something that I am very passionate about and I would urge all of you to publicly pledge your support for it too. Sport is built on great rivalries, we don’t want to make this thing vanilla. Staunchly support your favourite driver, wear your team’s colours with pride, have a view, have an opinion, but just respect the view points of others. Before you post or before you comment, just stop for a moment, pause, ask yourself ‘would I really say that to them if I was there in person?’ and more importantly, ‘how will this effect them? How will this effect their loved ones if they see it?’ It’s a great chance for us to set an example for the next generation of up and coming racers, officials, and fans. That is our responsibility; we love the passion, don’t make it personal.

Social media has many positive benefits, including empowering and connecting people. In sport, it brings fans closer to their heroes. At the same time, social media can generate decidedly unhealthy and destructive behaviours. Hiding behind a keyboard and screen to hurl abuse towards others is cowardly and weak. It has been deemed acceptable for too long when the damage caused by such behaviour has a terrible effect on the victim. You can demonstrate your passion, cheer and boo respectfully, but as soon as it crosses the line into threats and abuse, it must be called out and acted upon. It should never be acceptable, whether publicly or privately, to conduct such behaviour under any circumstance on any platform. I urge you to pledge #NoSocialHate and report such behaviour to the platforms the comments are made on.