July 21 – UEFA says it reported 290 cases of online abuse to social media companies during the group stage of the Women’s Euros.
UEFA launched a monitoring platform to tackle online abuse during the tournament and says 55% of the 290 were removed. England, Spain, France and Italy were the most-targeted sides.
In all, a total of 618 posts from 528 individual accounts were flagged for review. The majority of reported posts were directed at the competition (39%), with 19% at individual players.
UEFA said it will use the data it has collected to “work with national associations and social media companies to better fight against abuse during the remainder of the tournament and beyond”.
“UEFA is liaising closely with major social media platforms such as Twitter, Meta [Instagram and Facebook] and TikTok on these matters.
“In addition, it engages proactively with participating teams, briefing them ahead of the tournament and following each match, and engages in frequent dialogue with social platforms on available steps to protect players, referees and officials from online abuse.”
Michele Uva, UEFA’s director of football and social responsibility, added: “Our main goal is always to protect our game. It is great to see the project in action and I am pleased that we can already see the concrete impact this is having based on the numbers from the group stage.
“Posts are being identified and removed and we hope that this gives players, coaches and referees the possibility to be protected by UEFA.
“Our next steps are to work proactively to prevent, report and facilitate removal of abusive posts and comments, and we recognise our responsibility and role in this. We will continue to share insights in the last part of our fantastic EURO and in future UEFA events.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1736501525labto1736501525ofdlr1736501525owedi1736501525sni@w1736501525ahsra1736501525w.wer1736501525dna1736501525