A great summer marked by the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) in Paris ended a little over a month ago, on September 8 to be precise. However, this parenthesis already seems like a distant memory. On the competition and spectacle side, the international press, the general public and politicians from all sides remembered a moment of joy and pride which, for a few weeks, brought together a divided country.
Beyond the stadiums and the general atmosphere surrounding Paris 2024, another indicator has become essential for any organizer sporting event: the story that was told about it on social networks. How did Internet users react on the official JOP accounts – X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok? Were they dazzled by the Games or were they critical of them? Have the Games triggered their share of insults or hateful messages? Who are the most talked about athletes?
The French company Bodyguard, specialized in digital content moderation, is able to provide certain answers. For The Worldshe observed the exchanges that take place on the social platforms of International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). This has been its core business since 2021: protecting the accounts of brands or sporting institutions such as the Professional Football League, the Italian club Juventus Turin, the Roland-Garros tournament or even the French Football Federation and its internationals (men, women and hopefuls).
“Decadent values of the West”
The principle is simple: a technology, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), hides the writings in a few milliseconds deemed toxic in forty-five languages – these being then only visible to their author – but also emojis or other pictograms (in the shape of a banana to insult a black athlete, for example). “In this respect, the Games were largely a success”explains Charles Cohen, founder and president of Bodyguard, based on the volume of posts sent to JOP accounts throughout the summer.
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In two weeks of competition, from July 26 to August 11, the IOC received just under 3.2 million publications – the majority in English – on its five social media accounts and has generated more than 12,000 on its various platforms. Positive comments (28.5%) largely outweighed criticism (1.58%) and hate speech (2.5%), mainly transphobic, homophobic and racist insults. 64% of contributions are “neutral”that is to say that they did not arouse, in their formulation, any emotion.
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