We need to tackle the online abuse of athletes - Joe McMorrow

Technology is available to help combat online abuse directed at athletes, including the abusive trolling experienced recently by British Olympian Kirsty Gilmour.

In an article for BBC Sport, Gilmour wrote about the level of online abuse she had received, highlighting how she had been targeted by online trolls following defeat in badminton matches.

She said the messages she received, which shockingly accused her of being “part of a mafia. I’m a bitch. A prostitute.”, made her “viscerally angry in my very core”.

The Scot, who last month won a bronze medal in the women’s singles at the European Games in Poland, said she suspects most of her abusers have not watched her matches and instead comment after tracking the score on betting websites and losing money. She hoped her writing about the issue would cause trolls to think twice before posting abuse and “consider the actual, real-life human being opening that notification at the other end”.

Joe McMorrow, Senior Associate and specialist in employment law issues in the sports sector at Pinsent Masons

Gilmour said athletes had access to technology to help “filter out abusive comments in almost real time” at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and highlighted how tennis players at this year’s French Open also had access to such technology. However, she called on event organisers to ensure athletes have protection at their events too, and hoped that fast-evolving Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be put to good use, saying she and other athletes “need some protection the other 50 weeks of the year”.

She rightly states: “We haven't, as a society, managed to come up with any sort of preventative solution to online abuse.” There are, however, online tools available which can help individual athletes, sports clubs and event organisers identify abusive content and obtain its removal, including Alteria - Pinsent Masons’ brand and reputation management tool.

Alteria uses AI to search for abusive messages across social media and other online platforms. The searches are tailored to identify potentially inappropriate posts that refer to a client. Namely, in a sports context, sports organisations, or a particular athlete or employee. By using monitoring software that identifies online infringements, businesses have the option to file a takedown request to remove those posts via the platform at the click of a button.

With the rise of technology and social media, it is vital that organisations protect their talent and are seen to be doing so in a market where skills are in high demand. In football, we have seen men’s players be racially abused after missing penalties, while women’s players routinely receive sexist abuse and sexual harassment online.

Kirsty Gilmour has spoken out against the online abuse of sportspeople (Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Kirsty Gilmour’s brave decision to speak out on this matter shows how the issue of online abuse in sport extends well beyond football. She follows other leading sportspeople, including Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton, US Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles, tennis champion Naomi Osaka and swimmer Michael Phelps, in speaking out on mental health wellbeing, which is intrinsically linked to athletic performance and can be negatively impacted through exposure to online abuse.

​Joe McMorrow, Senior Associate and specialist in employment law issues in the sports sector at Pinsent Masons