On Wednesday, World Athletics published a comprehensive four-year cyberbullying report which covered two Olympic Games and two World Athletics Championships. The organisation utilised a data science company service, which operates in forty languages, to undertake the investigation.
The service called Threat Matrix uses machine learning and AI Natural Language Understanding to detect abuse and fixated threat online, helping World Athletics understand the issues and present it with actionable, real-world solutions.
The study covers track, field and road athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021), World Athletics Championships Oregon 2022, World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
More than 1.4 million posts or comments were analysed. This protected 2,438 athletes. By the Paris 2024 Games, 1,917 athletes and officials with at least one social media account were monitored. This was nearly twelve times the original sample set.
X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok were monitored during Paris 2024. In the initial Tokyo 2021 study, only X (previously Twitter) was analysed.
However, it is worth noting that the study did not include direct messaging or non-targeted abuse conversation; where athletes were mentioned but not tagged. Therefore, the scope of online abuse and threatening activity is likely significantly greater than what the study suggests.
Through this report, World Athletics has highlighted how: “racism, sexism and sexualised abuse were constant throughout the study, as was the prevalence and increasing volume of targeted abusive content on social media.”
Despite the difference in size and scale between World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games, the increasing abusive content on social media was prevalent throughout the study.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe voiced: “Over the past four years, we have invested significant resources into conducting research into online abuse during our sport’s major events – our World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games…
One of our significant successes from this initiative has been our ability to offer athletes support and providing them with the tools to proactively protect themselves against online abuse. Athlete welfare is at the very top of our priority list, and we will continue to put measures in place to ensure that athletes can confidently and safely engage with social media platforms.”
Some of the observations World Athletics made include:
- X (previously Twitter) remains most popular for watching live events and therefore abusing athletes in real time. However, the platform allows full access to data, enabling a more complete and accurate detection of abuse.
- The use of social media is growing among athletes.
- Far fewer athletes post during competition time, causing an atmosphere of inactivity. Those that do often only do so to celebrate success – and many employ some form of comment management.
- The use of emojis in online abuse has increased significantly, on multiple platforms. The data indicates that the ‘weaponisation of emojis’ has continued to increase, as emojis are often used to circumvent platform guidelines, being deployed with not immediately obvious abusive context.
Chair of the World Athletics Athletes’ Commission Valerie Adams expressed: “Competing at a global championship is one of the greatest pinnacles of most athletes’ careers, but it does create added pressures…
Social media is a great way to connect with fans and share event experiences, and for many athletes is also an important tool to build their brand and fulfil sponsor requirements, but when anonymous trolls online send abusive messages or harass athletes in their own comment sections, it can sour their experience, and many athletes choose to switch off their accounts during those major milestone moments….
World Athletics’ work in this space is vitally important as many athletes don’t know how to react when they see or receive abusive comments online, or what measures they can put in place to protect themselves before they enter the spotlight. The more we continue to educate athletes on safeguarding measures, the more athletes will feel comfortable flying the flag for their countries and their sport – on the field of play, and online.”
World Athletics stated that: “Taking real world action lies at the heart of World Athletics’ approach to protecting its athlete community.”
Some of the actions World Athletics has taken include:
- 1,258 posts and comments reported through to the relevant platform.
- 254 accounts verified to have sent abusive or threatening content have been escalated to the relevant platforms.
- 25 athletes have been offered year-round AI protection on some of their social media platforms after having been identified as highly-targeted individuals during major events – this will be expanded over the next year(s).
- Two serious cases have been highlighted to authorities after the accounts had been identified and evidence gathered.
- Educational materials have been created and distributed to athletes to provide more information on how to better protect themselves and their accounts online and more are currently in development.
- World Athletics is currently developing a plan to support its safeguarding policy.
- A consultation with athletes on this topic is also taking place.
Some further information from the study:
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
- 161 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (Twitter only)
- 240,707 posts captured for analysis
- 132 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
- 63% of abuse was targeted at two athletes (both female)
- 29% of abuse was sexist and 26% was racist
2022 World Athletics Championships
- 458 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (both Twitter and Instagram)
- 427,764 posts captured for analysis
- 59 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
- 59% of abuse targeted at female athletes
- 36% of abuse was sexual or sexist in nature and 19% was racist
2023 World Athletics Championships
- 1,344 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (both X – formerly Twitter – and Instagram)
- 417,240 posts captured for analysis
- 258 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
- X was the preferred channel for online abuse, accounting for over 90% of detected abuse
- 35% of abuse was racist (12x increase compared to 2022 Championships)
- Unlike previous events, abuse was driven by events outside the stadium and based on athletes’ wider reputation
Paris 2024 Olympic Games
- 1,917 athletes covered by Threat Matrix (across X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok)
- 355,873 posts captured for analysis
- 809 posts verified as abusive and reported to platforms
- 18% of all verified abuse was racist
- Two athletes accounted for 82% of all abuse
- 13% of all detected abuse was sexual in nature and 17% sexist, making up almost 1/3rd of detected abuse in this study
- Three out of the top five abused athletes from the 2023 World Championships also featured in the top five most targeted athletes at the Paris Games
It is clear that online abuse and threatening behaviour is becoming an increasing issue for athletes. Online abuse against female athletes and racism are particularly rife. Jamaican sprinter Junelle Bromfield was one of the athletes who reported experiencing cyberbullying at the Paris 2024 Games. She received death threats due to her relationship with Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles.
It is also important to remember that the study did not include direct messaging or non-targeted abuse conversation. However, this study does represent a significant step toward addressing a pervasive and often underreported issue.
The full report can be found here: 6762bcd37f1b92878441c35f.pdf (worldathletics.org)
