Program to prevent cyberbullying in tennis has reported 15 abusive posters to law enforcement
Tennis players train as a member of ground staff waters the plants at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The identities of 15 “highly abusive account authors” were reported to national law enforcement and about 12,000 posts or comments were pointed out to social media platforms this year as part of a new attempt to protect tennis players and officials from cyberbullying.
The results of the first 10 months of the program were announced Thursday by the groups that launched it: the WTA women’s professional tour, the International Tennis Federation and the organizations that run Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
The most common types of abuse were sexist remarks or sexually inappropriate content, and nearly half of the online abuse came from what were described as “angry gamblers.”
Content on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X is being tracked in 39 languages for harassment, abuse or threats. From January to October, nearly 2.5 million posts were monitored by a combination of artificial intelligence and people.
The French tennis federation began a similar effort during the French Open in 2023.
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