Football legend Thierry Henry has told Watford’s Troy Deeney that he has “had enough of talking” about racist abuse and has called on tech giants to clamp down on anonymous racist bullying.

It comes after the former Arsenal and Barcelona striker revealed last week that he would disable all his social media accounts as he described racism as “too toxic to ignore”.

In a statement posted on Twitter and Instagram on Friday, Henry said: “Hi Guys. From tomorrow morning I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright.

“The sheer volume of racism, bullying and resulting mental torture to individuals is too toxic to ignore. There has to be some accountability.

“It is far too easy to create an account, use it to bully and harass without consequence and still remain anonymous. Until this changes, I will be disabling my accounts across all social platforms. I’m hoping this happens soon.”

Speaking to Hornets striker Deeney, Henry told the Sun: “It wasn’t just yesterday, the day before yesterday, or the day before the day before yesterday. It’s been going on forever. In football, racism used to come from the stands.

“You play for Watford so you know how big John Barnes is, not only for Watford but for the game. I saw stories of John Barnes when I was young, of Marius Tresor when I was growing up in France.

“There are lots of stories. You have them. I have them. Everybody has them.

“But I talk, we talk, I talk, we talk, I talk, we talk. “What was it?” “How did you feel?” “Did you sleep well that night?” “Did you wake up well?” I talk, we talk, I talk, we talk - I’ve had enough of talking.

“I’ve had enough of talking, Troy. They ask me a question and I say: ‘Play my video from five years ago’.”

He added that while there is freedom of speech, people “can’t shout whatever you want in an airport, a cinema, a police station”.

“This is my point: accountability,” Henry said.

He referred to an incident last year where a 12-year-old boy was arrested in connection with a series of racist messages sent to Crystal Palace player Wilfred Zaha on Instagram.

Henry said: “How can we not know who you are behind that account?

“You have ways, come on! NHS number, National Insurance number or your passport. There has to be some kind of accountability there. It can’t be: ‘Sorry, it’s up to the user, we didn’t know. We’re going to delete his account.’"

“All you have is the IP address. I take another device and open another account. How do you know the guy is over 13 and so allowed to be on social media? It’s too easy.”

He added: “But Troy, you try to put on a video you don’t own the copyright on? You see how quick they take that down. And you didn’t do it to hurt anyone.

“They’ve invented some kind of algorithm so you can’t even press send. So how come you can press send when it’s about abuse? It is a great tool. It is very important. You can connect to your fans, you can connect to your family.

“People can sometimes use aliases to make sure that they expose what’s happening in their country or whatever, and they don’t want to get caught. It’s great.

“But when it’s not used for the right thing or in the right manner, then we need a way to find who is behind the account or some consequences for it.”