Tennis chiefs revealed Thursday that “angry gamblers” accounted for almost half of abusive social media posts targeting top tennis stars.
The AI-led Threat Matrix, launched by the ITF, WTA, Wimbledon and the US Open, analysed nearly 2.5 million posts on X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok between January and October this year.
From that number, “around 12,000” abusive messages were identified.
The four governing bodies said that “angry gamblers”, who bet on matches and vent their frustration on social networks when their bets fail, represented 48% of abusive messages detected in 2024.
“An increased volume of abusive content was observed during the Grand Slam tournaments”, which allow their authors to enjoy greater “visibility” given “the interest” sparked by tennis during these two-week long events.
“The identities of 15 highly abusive account authors have been passed to national law enforcement for action,” said the report.
“Abusers should be under no illusion – we will pursue criminal prosecution where we can, seek to exclude them from access to major social media platforms and ban them from attending our events.”
Former women’s world number one and two-time Grand Slam title winner Victoria Azarenka said she welcomed attempts to “create a healthier online environment”.
“Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, and with that, it was essential for the WTA and these partner organisations to take meaningful steps toward filtering, blocking, and reporting hateful and harmful comments,” she said.
“No one should have to endure the hate that so many of us have faced through these platforms.”
The figures released on Thursday could have made for even more depressing reading with the ATP, Australian Open and French Open not having participated in the Threat Matrix initiative.
In total, 7,739 players on the ITF circuit, the second tier of world tennis, and 563 contesting WTA tournaments are covered by the detection tool, which according to its initiators combines “artificial intelligence and human expertise” and operates in “39 languages”.
All players competing in the main draw and qualifying rounds for Wimbledon and the US Open in 2024 were also covered, as were chair umpires at those events.
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