FIFA and the world organization representing professional footballers (FIFPRO) have launched a plan to protect the teams that will participate in tournaments such as the World Cup in Qatar from the insults that are poured on social networks.
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On the United Nations International Day to Counter Hate Speech, FIFA published a report reflecting the increase in insults received by footballers on social media platforms during national team tournaments.
The study, which used artificial intelligence to track more than 400,000 posts on social media platforms during the semi-finals and finals of two national team tournaments (European Championship 2020 and African Cup 2021), found that more than 50 percent of the players were subjected to some form of discriminatory insults, much of it coming from their own nations.
Homophobic and racist comments
The majority correspond to homophobic (40 percent) and racist (38 percent) comments, many of which remain published in the accounts to which they were originally directed, FIFA said in a statement.
To counteract this situation, FIFA and FIFPRO will launch a specific moderation service for men’s and women’s football tournaments that looks for recognized hate speech that is published in the social media accounts assigned to it and, after detecting them, prevents the recipient and their followers from seeing the comment.
Although the offending message is still visible to the person who posted the comment, its visibility and reach will be significantly reduced, the two organizations understand.
High probability of identification
The report also highlights that 90 percent of the accounts that have posted these abusive comments have a high probability of being identified, so the activity of said accounts can be transmitted to social media platforms and the authorities that are in charge of enforce the law so that further action can be taken.
“We have an obligation to protect football and that begins with the footballers, who give us so much joy and happiness with their feats on the pitch,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who considered the move “unacceptable.” tendency to publish comments against players, coaches, referees and teams, a “form of discrimination that has no place in football” or in society.
protect and educate
With this action, FIFA intends to “protect football and avoid the harmful effects that these publications can cause”, but also “educate current and future generations who interact” with sport “both on social media and on the pitch ”.
“We hope that by coming together to combat the problem, social media platforms will do the same and actively support us to be part of the solution,” FIFA said.
David Aganzo warns of the repercussions
The Spanish David Aganzo, president of FIFPRO, indicated that insults to soccer players “have a huge impact on their personality, their families, their performance and their mental health and general well-being.”
In this sense, the two institutions will provide educational support, which includes recommendations on best practices for managing accounts on social networks, and will give advice on mental health for all players participating in FIFA tournaments during 2022 and 2023. .