• More than half of the abuse identified was of a racial or sexual nature
• Racist abuse increased by 14% compared to 2022
World Athletics has today (22 December 2023) published the findings of a study conducted during the Budapest 23 World Athletics Championships focused on identifying and addressing abusive and threatening behavior targeting athletes on social media platforms X and Instagram.
Based on the last two years of greater protections in sport, 449,209 posts and comments between August 18-28 were analyzed for abusive content in 16 different languages and additional dialects, protecting 1,344 athletes with 1,666 active accounts across both platforms.
This included text analysis, through searches for slurs and other phrases (including emoji) that could indicate abuse. Image recognition tools were also used to flag potentially offensive images. These findings were then compared to the results from the previous study, conducted a year earlier at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon22 (July 15-24, 2022).
The investigation once again found clear cases of online abuse and threats, aimed at athletes competing at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. It found notable examples of racist and sexual abuse, with a selection of posts extending to possible action by law enforcement.
The study revealed:
- X (formerly Twitter) was the channel of choice for abusers, accounting for nearly 90% of detected abuse, a relative increase of 500% compared to 2022
- Racist abuse makes up over a third of all abuse, rising 14% by 2022
- Male athletes have experienced an increase in abuse, with the gender split in abuse being 51% targeting men and 49% targeting women
- Two athletes out of 1344 tracked received 44% of all recorded abuse between them
“Athletes should not accept abuse as an inevitable consequence of their presence on these social media platforms,” said World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon.
“We are the No. 1 Olympic sport and we have a responsibility to protect our athletes, on and off the playing field. So as we enter an Olympic year, with the added attention that brings, we are seeking urgent meetings with these platforms to achieve a greater level of enforcement and protection for our athletes.
“Over the past six years World Athletics has invested significant time and money in educating its stakeholders on maximizing their potential on digital platforms. However, we can only do so knowing that they are protected and not exposed to abuse. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will continue to closely monitor developments in these channels to help guide our future programs and priorities.”
![Breakdown of abuse study by platform](https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/65856153880fc9a18d280b09.jpg)
![Breakdown of abuse study by platform](https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/65856153880fc9a18d280b09.jpg)
The levels of abuse found in Budapest were significantly higher compared to the previous year’s study conducted during the World Athletics Championships in Oregon22. Of the instances of racist abuse identified, the vast majority were directed at X. The abuse was overwhelmingly aimed at black athletes, with images of monkeys being invoked and the use of the N-word in many spellings.
This is the third study of its kind in sport and is part of a four-year research program by World Athletics to fully understand the scale, scale and severity of online abuse athletes face during major sporting events. It is the third deployment of Threat Matrix, an initiative by data science firm Signify Group, backed by sports research firm Quest.
With a fourth study due to be conducted at the Paris Olympics next year, the combined research will then include data from two Olympic Games as well as two World Athletics Championships, with events across Asia, Europe and North America.
NOTES:
After expanding coverage from 2021 to 2022 from one to two platforms, the analysis expanded further in 2023, tracking almost three times the number of athletes compared to 2022, increasing the total number of athletes covered from 461 to 1344 in 2023 .
The expansion of athlete coverage for Budapest showed that while the number of athletes targeted during a competition can be large, only a few athletes often make up the majority of the recipients of abuse.
This is important as it represents both a need and an opportunity to shape how athletes’ well-being is addressed during and after competition. There is an opportunity to proactively intervene with athletes who are frequently targeted, which drives some of the measures World Athletics has in place to further protect its athletes.
Looking ahead to 2024 – and especially in a year where even more attention will be paid to our athletes as participants in the #1 Olympic sport – World Athletics
- has reported identified abusive posts on the platforms and their removal status is being monitored.
- is investing in additional systems, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to further protect athletes from online abuse, keeping their social streams free of hate and allowing them to focus on their performance. It also stops their followers from being exposed to hate speech.
- will provide platforms with additional data to help further improve their services to ensure better protection of athletes online as well as more equal coverage.
- will endeavor to work closely with platforms to support and educate athletes and other stakeholders on best practices and online protection.
- will feed its findings into wider research programs designed to tackle hate speech in sport.
In order to understand the correlation between media coverage and the type of feedback athletes receive online, further research will be used on media coverage and search engine data, which directly influence how athletes can be discovered to the public around the world, to help shape further measures in the world Athletics will undertake to promote and protect its athletes in 2024 and beyond.
The findings of this investigation will be published in due course along with more specific actions.