FIFA’s Social Media Protection Service (SMPS), which monitors players, teams and officials for online threats and abuse, has flagged more than seven million potentially harmful or abusive posts across social media during this year’s World Cup, football’s governing body said on Saturday (18 July).
FIFA said the detection rate was 14 times higher than at the 2022 tournament, when 470,000 such posts were removed.
The SMPS team has reviewed more than half a million AI-flagged messages directed at players, coaches and officials during the ongoing tournament, and has reported over 1,000 threats to authorities, including law enforcement.
In total, the service has moderated more than 53 million posts and comments since the World Cup began, a tournament that concludes on Sunday with the final between Argentina and Spain.
Earlier this month, FIFA said racial abuse accounted for 11 percent of the offensive messages detected during the competition so far.
