Football has always been a predominantly male sport, thus entering the realm brings forth varying challenges for women as is but now reports from FIFA and the global union for soccer players – FIFPRO, show how the female soccer players at this year’s World Cup were subjected to and inundated with a lot more online abuse and harassment than their male peers.
TikTokThe report was formulated by the Social Media Protection Service (SMPS), a venture created by FIFA and the Union. According to the Washington Post, players using the service had their social media channels surveilled and moderated for online abuse and harassment. This monitoring was done through “Threat Matrix”, an AI tool that actively scanned for abuse and user activity over X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
Subsequently, the report found that 1 in 5 female players were on the receiving end of online abuse which was ruled as abusive, threatening or discriminatory in its messaging. This meant that from the 697 female athletes who took part in the tournament and had their accounts monitored, an alarming number of 152 players had to deal with the abuse and hate.
The female players were, as the reports find, 29% more likely to be targeted with online abuse than their male counterparts who played in Qatar’s World Cup in 2022. As for the nature of abuse, 20% of the abuse entailed homophobic themes, 15% were sexual, and 14% were sexist and misogynistic comments.
The winners of the 2015 and 2019 World Cups – The United States Women’s National Team, were on the receiving end of the abuse because of the perception that the players were not singing the National Anthem. The actions triggered abuse and harassment, for the players were deemed as unpatriotic and anti-American.
An undisclosed Argentinian player on the women’s national team also received “large volumes of detected abuse”, whilst abuse was also inflicted because of some politicians who used social media to support their countries during the matches.
The mental toll the abuse took was highlighted in the report through the Colombian player Leicy Santos’ statement which highlighted many players’ inability to cope with the flood of hateful comments and the immense negative inflictions the comments carried.
The online monitoring by SMPS also resulted in the reporting and flagging of more than 2000 accounts; it hid 116,000 plus abusive posts from about 1.3 million comments. The flagged content was removed from both the players’ accounts and the official team channels.
Meanwhile, Gianni Infantino, the FIFA President, has vowed to tackle the abuse the players are enduring and take steps to fight the threatening content.
“There can be no place on social media for those who abuse or threaten anyone, be that in FIFA tournaments or elsewhere,” Infantino stated.
