FIFPRO at MozFest: Why online abuse must have real-life consequences

• FIFPRO Global Board Member and SJPF President joined MozFest panel in Barcelona to discuss online abuse against athletes
• Evangelista highlighted the impact on players’ working lives, mental health and families
• FIFPRO is calling for greater platform accountability and collective action between sport and civil society

Social media platforms must take greater responsibility for protecting players from online abuse, FIFPRO Global Board Member and SJPF President Joaquim Evangelista told MozFest in Barcelona, Spain.

Speaking on the panel ‘Scrolling Through the Hate: Athletes Under Attack’, Evangelista highlighted how online abuse follows footballers beyond the pitch, affecting their mental health, performance and families.

The discussion, organised by Luminate and moderated by sports journalist Miriam Walker-Khan, brought together Evangelista, Great Britain Olympian Ashleigh Nelson and Asha Allen of the Center for Democracy & Technology Europe. 

Addressing an audience from the technology and digital rights community, Evangelista called for sport and civil society to work together to secure safer online spaces and ensure perpetrators face consequences.

“Abuse in stadiums is a long-standing problem in football culture. Social media has turned it into a 24/7 issue: the workplace no longer ends at the pitch or training ground – it follows players into their homes, their phones and their families,” said Evangelista.

“Anonymity and scale have lowered the threshold for perpetrators: one click, no cost, no consequence.”

Players are people first

FIFPRO’s work with player unions across sports has demonstrated the scale and discriminatory nature of the abuse athletes receive.

A 2022 study conducted with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), supported by Signify, examined online abuse targeting 160 players. It identified 1,558 targeted abusive posts from 1,455 accounts over one quarter.

Racism and homophobia accounted for 85 percent of abuse directed at men’s footballers in the study, while four in five cases targeting women’s basketball players involved sexualised abuse or harassment.

Evangelista stressed that behind those figures are people whose working and personal lives are affected.

“Players are workers and people before they are athletes. Abuse affects sleep, confidence and performance, and adds to an already high mental-health burden in elite sport,” he said.

Nelson, who has represented Great Britain at multiple Olympic Games and is an ambassador for mental health charity Sane, questioned why athletes are expected to take responsibility for protecting themselves from abuse.

“I know there are things that I can put in place but I think, why should that be my responsibility that somebody else does not racially abuse me?” she said.

Protection must lead to accountability

FIFA and FIFPRO’s Social Media Protection Service has helped shield players from abusive content and identify perpetrators at international tournaments.

During the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the service screened more than 20 million posts across five platforms. It confirmed and reported 19,636 abusive, discriminatory or threatening posts, while 286,895 comments were hidden before players saw them. More than 300 individuals were identified and their details passed to authorities.

However, Evangelista emphasised that protecting players from seeing abuse must be accompanied by action against those responsible.

“Moderation filters and blackouts are necessary but not sufficient,” he said. “Abuse that meets the criminal threshold must be investigated and prosecuted. Every conviction sends a message.”

Allen, whose work focuses on protecting fundamental rights and strengthening accountability in technology policy, said the emphasis on individual safety can divert attention from platforms’ obligations.

“Often the conversation on social media places the onus back on you to learn how to navigate that space which detracts from the responsibility of the platforms to comply with the rules that are in place,” she said.

“There is a position now that they are too big to be answerable, that is not something we should accept and we need to keep pushing for them to be answerable.”

Athletes must have a voice

The discussion highlighted the need to bring athletes’ experiences into decisions about online safety, alongside closer cooperation between sport and digital rights organisations.

“When policies are being made, athletes’ voices need to be heard because unless you’ve lived it you don’t know,” said Nelson.

Evangelista concluded: “Tackling online abuse requires platforms to take responsibility for the environments they create, alongside cooperation between sport, law enforcement and civil society. We must push together for accountability and enforcement of regulation.”