1 in 5 Women’s World Cup players subjected to online abuse during tournament, report says

Ellie Carpenter hadn’t even left the field after the Matildas’ semi-final loss to England at the 2023 Women’s World Cup when her phone started exploding.

Thousands upon thousands of people, upset by the mistake he had made that resulted in the Lionesses’ second goal in their 3-1 victory, took to social media to send Carpenter waves of abusive messages, which the former captain of The Socceroos, Craig Foster, described them as “vile”. “You misogynistic trash.”

The avalanche of online abuse eventually forced the 23-year-old defender to completely disable comments on her social media accounts.

An error by Ellie Carpenter led to England’s Lauren Hemp (pictured) scoring to take a 2-1 lead in the semi-final.(Getty Images: FIFA/Mark Metcalfe)

She wasn’t the only one.

According to a new report from FIFA and FIFPROAccording to the global players’ union, one in five players was subjected to online harassment at some point during the Women’s World Cup.

Millions of posts and comments were filtered through an AI-powered tool called “Threat Matrix”, which was launched as part of FIFA’s social media protection service last year and monitors activity on all major media platforms. social networks, including X (formerly Twitter), Instagram. , Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

More than 2,100 active accounts belonging to players, coaches, officials, teams, journalists and former players were part of the protective coverage network, as well as four active tournament accounts.

In total, 5.1 million posts were analyzed between the start on July 19 and the end on August 21, and AI identified potentially abusive comments and posts using text, emojis, and phrase categorization.

Approximately 102,500 posts were flagged by the system and subsequently reviewed by humans from FIFA’s own moderation team.

More than 7,080 of the flagged posts were verified as abusive and reported to the platforms on which they were made, while another 117,000 comments were hidden from view of the public and the players they were directed at. X (formerly Twitter) had “by far” the highest volume of abusive posts with 6,184 referring to the platform’s own reporting mechanism.

Some 5,800 unique social media accounts were detected sending abusive posts and comments, and 628 of those accounts had verified identities. Sixty-seven percent of those verified accounts were geolocated in North and Central America, while 21 percent were from Europe.

In total, more than 150 players (out of 697 active players monitored) were subjected to “some type of discriminatory, abusive or threatening content.”

A large proportion of that abuse was homophobic, according to FIFA, with almost double the percentage of comments relating to players’ sexuality compared to abusive comments made during the men’s World Cup in Qatar. Sexualized and misogynistic content was also prolific, while racism was also common.

While players throughout the tournament were attacked online, there were a handful of individuals and teams that suffered the most abuse.

The United States and Argentina were the two most attacked teams at the World Cup, and FIFA suggested the high profile of the United States (as winners of the previous two tournaments), along with “the perception that players who do not sing the national anthem are called unpatriotic and un-American,” fueled the disproportionate online abuse they received.

The United States was eliminated from the World Cup by Sweden on penalties.(Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)

FIFA also identified two individual players, one from the US and one from Argentina, who were “on the receiving end of large volumes of detected abuse, while politicians in many nations provoked abuse by offering support to their teams and, sometimes commenting negatively on their performance. , producing a greater influx of abusive posts/comments.”

The biggest spike in online abuse from verified accounts throughout the tournament came when the United States was eliminated by Sweden, while the second biggest spike came during the final, where Matrix clocked over 11,000 posts and comments across all 48 hours surrounding the tournament. match.

English and Spanish players were also in the top five, although FIFA acknowledged that this was partly due to both teams reaching the final of the tournament and therefore the longevity of their participation was a factor in the number of publications they received.

The Matildas came in fifth place, with around half of the online abuse being homophobic in nature.

Overall, female players were 29 percent more likely to be subject to online abuse and harassment than male players participating in last year’s Qatar World Cup, and homophobic comments were twice as common at the tournament. feminine than in the masculine.

In the report, FIFA and FIFPRO denounced the “highly sporadic approach” of social media platforms themselves in addressing and removing reported abusive content, and implored these platforms to “strengthen their own filters and moderation libraries to take advantage of existing protections.” “, given the online abuse can affect the mental health of athletes, officials and fans.

When asked about the impact the abuse had on his own mental health, Carpenter revealed a depressing truth many athletes face: that online abuse just comes with the territory.

“That also comes with being a professional athlete.

“You see it everywhere, in different leagues, different sporting codes, so obviously it’s a problem.

“I know a lot of people are trying to create apps and platforms to try to stop abuse and things like that, so it’s good that people are aware of it and are trying to change it.”

They recommend that member associations provide proactive moderation support to players and teams before tournaments begin, using tools such as their AI-powered tools to automatically filter and delete comments before they can be viewed.

FIFA also suggests that organizations inform political parties and government leaders about the knock-on effects their own public comments can have in triggering further online abuse, noting that the 2026 men’s World Cup will be co-hosted in the US. at the same time that the country participates in the midterm elections.