Soccer's world governing body FIFA
said on Sunday that all teams at the 2023 Women's World Cup will get a package
of social media tools designed to protect players from online abuse.
The Social Media Protection Service
(SMPS), developed by FIFA and the players' union FIFPRO, will monitor and
moderate hate speech on social media and will hide harmful content from the
players.
"Discrimination is a criminal
act," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino. "With the help of this
tool, we’ll identify the perpetrators and report them to the authorities so
that they are punished for their actions."
Several teams in this year's Women's
World Cup, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand from July 20-Aug.
20, will implement the moderation element of the service immediately to limit visibility of online abuse.
The tool was offered to players at
the 2022 men's World Cup in Qatar. 38% of identifiable abuse came from accounts
based in Europe, with 36% from South America.
The SMPS scanned over 20 million
posts and comments on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube
throughout the men's tournament in Qatar.
Specialist artificial intelligence and two layers of human analysis flagged 20,000 social media posts that were abusive, discriminatory, or threatening.
From Reuters and VOA News (adapted)
