The All England Lawn Tennis Club is using artificial intelligence for the first time to protect players at Wimbledon from online abuse.
An AI-driven service monitors players’ public-facing social media profiles and automatically flags death threats, racism and sexist comments in 35 different languages.
High-profile players who have been targeted online such as the former US Open champion Emma Raducanu and the four-time grand slam winner Naomi Osaka have previously spoken out about having to delete Instagram and Twitter, now called X, from their phones.
Harriet Dart, the British No 2, has said she only uses social media from time to time because of online “hate”.
Speaking on Thursday after her triumph against Katie Boulter, the British No 1, Dart said: “I just think there’s a lot of positives for it [social media] but also a lot of negatives. I’m sure today, if I open one of my apps, regardless if I won, I’d have a lot of hate as well.”
Jamie Baker, the tournament’s director, said Wimbledon had introduced the social media monitoring service Threat Matrix. The system, developed by the AI company Signify Group, will also be rolled out at the US Open.
Baker said: “This is not something you would see in the public domain at all. You won’t see us shout about it, but basically we are scrolling social media for any of this type of content and it means that we can get information that we haven’t had in the past.
“We’re not just relying on what the player might be saying has happened to them, but also if there is something that is of concern, that is when our security team is going to basically kick in and actually help do something about it.”
He said the AI-driven service was supported by people monitoring the accounts. Players can opt in for a fuller service that scans abuse or threats via private direct messaging.
Baker, a former British No 2, said Wimbledon would consult the players about the abuse before reporting it to tech companies for removal or to the police if deemed necessary.
Explaining how the service worked, Baker said: “If we’ve got anything that we think is a concern or worth flagging, ultimately it’s engaging with the player and then you deal with the next steps on that. The benefit of having it is that you do have the ability to officially register what is going on with the right people there.
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“But we wouldn’t be taking any of those steps without actually engaging with the player and their teams to try to get a feel of what’s going on.”
World Rugby also uses the service, which led to an Australian being successfully prosecuted in April after a referee and his wife received threatening and abusive messages via Facebook during the World Cup.
Wimbledon said Threat Matrix had conducted a study in which it monitored more than 1.6m public posts on X and 19,000 Instagram comments sent to 454 players competing at a range of professional tennis tournaments in 2022 and found that one in four players were subject to abuse. It identified 546 offensive posts from 438 accounts.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) said the number of female players affected by online bullying was on the rise and urged social media bosses to make their platforms safer.
Courtney McBride, a WTA general counsel and senior vice-president, said: “We’ve been working with our players for several years to support them on this important issue, as the number affected continues to increase. We remain committed to working with the social media companies and urge them to find ways of making their platforms a safe place for expression where harassment or abuse of individuals is not tolerated.”