FIFA Social Media Protection Service

Tackling online abuse at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™

Levels of abuse

Trends and insights

Real-world action

The FIFA Social Media Protection Service Report represents a summary analysis of all monitoring and moderation activities carried out during FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™.
The report covers SMPS activities across all major platforms including X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, and is supplementary to the daily reports provided to FIFA across the tournament.

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                                    FIFA Social Media Protection Service - FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™ tournament analysis
                                  
Social Media Protection Service at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™
                                        
Posts / comments analysed

Comments hidden

Posts / comments flagged by AI and reviewed by humans

Posts / comments verified as abusive and reported to platforms

Unique accounts detected sending abusive messages

accounts identified for real-world action

                            Levels of abuse
                          
During the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ protective coverage was set up for the following participants:

697 Players and Coaches with 1,805 active accounts

                                          29 Officials with 37 active accounts

                                          32 Teams with 202 active accounts

                                          35 Ex-Players / Media with 63 active accounts

                                          4 active tournament accounts

Coverage spanned across the five major social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube:

                                                Breakdown of monitored accounts (by platform)

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ saw discriminatory, abusive or threatening content targeted at over 150 players, but two teams stood out as key targets – the USA and Argentina.
Making up almost 50% of all detected abuse across the tournament, Sexist, Sexual and Homophobic messages were the weapon of choice to target female footballers.
There has been a noticeable increase of targeted abuse connected to political statements of support or commiserations. With the largest segment of politically motivated abuse coming from the US market, it’s interesting to note that the next FIFA World Cup™ will take place in the same region, crossing over with campaigning for the US Midterm elections.

                                                Detected abusive messages by category: all platforms (19th July – 21st August 2023)

Content was subject to moderation, monitoring or reporting where it included a reference – whether express or implied – to any one or more of the reasons listed by Article 4 of the FIFA Statutes, where the context may be reasonably concluded to be harmful.

DISCRIMINATION of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of race, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, disability, religion, political opinion or wealth, birth or sexual orientation is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

                                                    Article 4 of the FIFA Statutes
                                                  
Additionally, any content which may be deemed to include threat of harm to the subject or their family members was automatically included for assessment.

Discrimination is a criminal act. With the help of this tool, we are identifying the perpetrators and we are reporting them to the authorities so that they are punished for their actions. Our position is clear: we say no to discrimination.

Gianni Infantino

FIFA President

Trends and insights

There were several flashpoints during the tournament, with the largest single of targeted abuse coming following the USA exit of the World Cup after a penalty defeat to Sweden. The second-largest volume of abuse was around the final match between England and Spain, various types of abuse were seen on both sides.

Abuse timeline

                                                  Incident
                                                  Date
                                                
                                                  Noticeable and reported spikes of abuse targeting the USA and Argentine player
                                                  Jul 19 - Jul 25
                                                
                                                  USA draw against Portugal to make it to the group stages
                                                  Aug 1
                                                
                                                  Argentina exit World Cup after losing to Sweden
                                                  Aug 2
                                                
                                                  USA exit World Cup after penalty defeat to Sweden, leading to pile-on of abuse including replies to commiserations by figures like President Biden
                                                  Aug 8
                                                
                                                  France exit World Cup after penalty loss to Australia
                                                  Aug 12
                                                
                                                  England Men's footballer recipient of abuse after congratulating England team for reaching the final
                                                  Aug 18
                                                
                                                  World Cup final between England and Spain, various types of abuse seen on both sides
                                                  Aug 18
                                                
The Final of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ was a tight match – won 1-0 by Spain over European Champions England.
BEFORE THE FINAL

Issues were detected in the build-up to the Final, particularly around the England team. News that members of the UK Royal Family were choosing not to attend the game and the UK Prime Minister wishing the team luck both generated messages containing abusive content (a common trend across this study).

DURING THE FINAL

As the losing team, England’s official accounts received the initial incidents of detected abuse, with specific players singled out for attention.

The US match official refereeing the final received abuse on X (formerly Twitter) following her involvement in a penalty decision (called by VAR).

AFTER THE FINAL

Spanish players received targeted abuse, with a more complex set of triggers including congratulatory messages from politicians (another common trigger).

In the aftermath of the Final, the incident involving Spanish FA President Luis Rubiales and a Spanish player created a significant spike of posts / comments

These incidents generated the largest spike of abusive, discriminatory and violent content across the tournament.

On the day of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ Final and 24hrs after…

Posts / comments analysed

Posts / comments flagged by AI and reviewed by humans

Posts / comments verified as abusive and reported to platforms*

comments hidden by SMPS (player / coach / team accounts)

* Abuse totals based on the number of reported breaches of platform’s own community guidelines.

Football has a responsibility to protect the players and other affected groups around their workspace. Therefore, FIFPRO and FIFA will continue their collaboration but we cannot do this alone – we need all stakeholders to play their part.

David Aganzo

FIFPRO President

Real-world action

In order to support real-world action being taken against those who sent online abuse to teams and players taking part in the tournament, Social Media Protection Service implemented a tiering system to grade the severity of the comment/post in question:

Tier 3:
The number of identified and verified account owners detected from posts sent.

                                  Tier 2:
The number of accounts being reviewed as part of the SMPS initiative. Many of these accounts will continue to be analysed in the months following the event

                                  Tier 1:
Represents accounts that are likely to require a disproportionate level of resource to fully identify. Recommendations for action therefore focus on accounts marked Green and Amber.

7,085 accounts were recorded sending abuse or threat across the tournament. 3,570 of those accounts were graded as having posted comments that fell into tier one and, of those, 628 have had their identity verified by the service provider.

It was possible to identify the locations of the 7,085 accounts that sent abuse during the tournament. 67% came from North & Central America, while 21% came from Europe.

Verified information about the aforementioned 628 accounts has been made available by FIFA for relevant Member Associations and jurisdictional authorities to support real-world action being taken against those who sent abusive, discriminatory and threatening comments to participating teams and players during the FIFA World Cup.

PALERMO, ITALY - MARCH 24: Fans of Italy hold smartphones as the team of Italy arrives at the stadium prior to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifier knockout round play-off match between Italy and North Macedonia at Renzo Barbera Stadium in Palermo, Italy. (Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images)

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FIFA Social Media Protection Service

FIFA Social Media Protection Service

Tackling online abuse at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™

Social Media Protection Service at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023™

Posts / comments analysed

Comments hidden

Posts / comments flagged by AI and reviewed by humans

Posts / comments verified as abusive and reported to platforms

Unique accounts detected sending abusive messages

accounts identified for real-world action

Levels of abuse

Trends and insights

On the day of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ Final and 24hrs after…

Posts / comments analysed

Posts / comments flagged by AI and reviewed by humans

Posts / comments verified as abusive and reported to platforms*

comments hidden by SMPS (player / coach / team accounts)

* Abuse totals based on the number of reported breaches of platform’s own community guidelines.

Real-world action

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Incident	Date
Noticeable and reported spikes of abuse targeting the USA and Argentine player	Jul 19 - Jul 25
USA draw against Portugal to make it to the group stages	Aug 1
Argentina exit World Cup after losing to Sweden	Aug 2
USA exit World Cup after penalty defeat to Sweden, leading to pile-on of abuse including replies to commiserations by figures like President Biden	Aug 8
France exit World Cup after penalty loss to Australia	Aug 12
England Men's footballer recipient of abuse after congratulating England team for reaching the final	Aug 18
World Cup final between England and Spain, various types of abuse seen on both sides	Aug 18