FIFA detects 7 million abusive comments directed at players and coaching staff during the World Cup

FIFA announced on Saturday that its social media abuse protection service, aimed at safeguarding players, teams, and officials from online threats and abuse, had identified more than seven million posts potentially containing harmful or abusive content on social media platforms during the World Cup.

FIFA noted that the monitoring rate increased 14-fold compared to the 2022 edition, during which approximately 470,000 such posts were identified and removed.

The social media abuse protection team reviewed more than 500,000 messages flagged by artificial intelligence technologies that targeted players, coaches, and officials during the current tournament, and reported over 1,000 threats to authorities, including law enforcement agencies.

Earlier this month, FIFA stated that racist abuse accounted for approximately 11 percent of the total abusive messages identified during the tournament so far.