Manchester United stars receive more online abuse than players from any other Premier League side.Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Maguire are statistically the most abused players in the country, with Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes not far behind, according to a report by Ofcom and the Alan Turing Institute, which looked into social media activity during the first five months of the 2021/22 season.Tottenham's Harry Kane and Manchester City's Jack Grealish are the only two non-United stars to make the top 10 - with David De Gea, Paul Pogba, Fred and Jesse Lingard completing the list.READ MORE: Man Utd captain Harry Maguire loudly booed every time he touches ball in pre-season friendlyBetween August 13, 2021 and January 24, 2022, a whopping 12,520 abusive tweets were aimed at Ronaldo, while 8,954 were directed at Maguire - who was roundly booed every time he touched the ball during a pre-season friendly in Australia last month.Rashford, Fernandes and Kane, meanwhile, all received over 2,000 abusive messages online over the same period.Kevin Bakhurst, Ofcom's group director for broadcasting and online content, said: "These findings shed light on a dark side to the beautiful game. Online abuse has no place in sport, nor in wider society, and tackling it requires a team effort.Should more be done to stop footballers getting abused online? Let us know what you think in the comments section below."Social media firms needn't wait for new laws to make their sites and apps safer for users.
