USWNT most targeted by Women’s World Cup online abuse – FIFA،
More than 150 players at the 2023 Women's World Cup were victims of targeted abuse on social media, with a FIFA report showing the U.S. women's national team received more than twice as many discriminatory messages or threatening than any other competing nation.
Two unidentified players – whom FIFA chose not to name to protect their individuals from further abuse – representing the United States and Argentina received far more abusive messages than any other player at the tournament .
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A study commissioned by FIFA, in collaboration with global players' association FIFPRO, has published data generated by FIFA's Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) during the Women's World Cup, hosted in Australia and England. New Zealand in July and August.
More than 5.1 million posts and comments in 35 languages across social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube – were scanned for abusive content by the artificial intelligence program, and 102,511 Posts were then flagged and analyzed by humans.
Two-thirds (67%) of accounts posting abuse came from accounts registered in North and Central America, and of 7,085 messages reported as abusive or threatening, 6,184 were sent from X accounts.
According to SMPS data, abusive messages toward the U.S. team centered around their failure to sing the national anthem before games. There was a notable increase in abuse after the United States failed to beat Portugal in a group match on August 1, while abuse detected across all platforms peaked in the tournament on August 6 after the USWNT exited following its loss to Sweden.
SMPS data noted that many abusive messages were sent in response to President Joe Biden's compassion for American players.
Spain's victory over England in the final sparked the second largest wave of abusive messages, with several Spanish players targeted with sexist and misogynistic comments following the incident when the then Spanish FA president , Luis Rubiales, kissed player Jenni Hermoso during the trophy presentation ceremony.
While general abuse represented 23.31% of the incriminated messages, anti-gay messages (20.4%) and messages of a sexual nature (15.03%) were also significant in volume.
“There is no place on social media for those who abuse or threaten anyone, whether in FIFA tournaments or elsewhere,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
“Through the Social Media Protection Service, introduced a year ago with the support of FIFPRO, FIFA has helped reduce the exposure of players, teams and officials to abuse and hate speech online by flagging and hiding over 400,000 comments.
“Discrimination has no place in football or in society. Together we say: NO DISCRIMINATION!”
