“around 12,000” abusive messages spotted by Tennis authorities in 2024

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said it was ready to take legal action against those involved.

This is an important first step against “online hate”. Since the launch in January of a tool for detecting abusive publications and comments targeting players, “environ 12 000” abusive messages have been spotted, announced several authorities in the world of tennis. “The authors of abusive messages must have no illusions: we will seek legal action when we can, we will seek to ban them from access to the largest social networks on the planet and to our tournaments,” wrote Thursday December 19 on X the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

The governing body of world tennis joined forces in 2023 with the WTA women’s circuit, the organizers of Wimbledon and those of the US Open to “fighting online hatred against players, authorities and the tennis family at large”, according to a press release published Tuesday by the four organizations. Between January and October 2024, their Threat Matrix tool analyzed nearly 2.5 million posts on X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok. In total, 7,739 players on the ITF circuit (the 2nd division of world tennis) and 563 participants in WTA tournaments are currently covered by this detection tool, which according to its initiators combines “artificial intelligence and human expertise” and works in “39 languages”.

“Environ 12 000 posts and comments were considered abusive and reported” to the managers of the different social networks “to be removed, or in the most serious cases, to have the account deleted”, details the press release. Fifteen account owners, authors of abusive messages, were reported to the courts of their country.

The four authorities also note that the “angry punters”, who bet on matches and vent their frustration on social networks when their bet fails, represent 48% of abusive messages detected in 2024. “An increased volume of abusive content was observed during Grand Slam tournaments,” which allow their authors to enjoy greater “visibility” vu “the renewed interest” sparked by tennis during these fortnights.