The Professional Footballers' Association has blamed social media abuse for contributing to a surge in the number of players accessing its counselling services last year.
A record 643 players contacted the PFA in 2019, an increase of almost 50% from the previous year.
PFA director of player welfare Michael Bennett told BBC Sport: "I've spoken to players who've deleted their accounts - that's just because of the barrage they get.
"You think about it, some of these players have 50, 60, 100,000 followers, and if you're getting negative feedback from a large proportion of those individuals, it's going to affect you."
In April last year a number of top players boycotted social media for 24 hours in protest against a perceived lack of action by football authorities over discriminatory taunts.
