The governing body of world football announced on Wednesday that FIFA is launching a new service to combat hate speech and prejudice online during the World Cup.
FIFA will take action against prejudice on the internet during the World Cup
When athletes log onto their phones in the dressing rooms minutes after games, the social media protection service prevents them from seeing bad news.
The social media accounts of all World Cup participants are monitored by FIFA, who looks for publicly visible threats, insults and other types of abuse before reporting them to the appropriate social media platforms and the police.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino mentioned that FIFA is focused on providing the best for players so they can get the most out of their skills.
We are pleased to offer a solution to help protect players from the damage that social media posts can do to their mental health and well-being at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Teams, players, and other participants can choose to use a moderation service that will instantly remove rude and offensive comments from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, so neither the recipient nor their followers can see them.
More than half of the participants in the Euro 2017 and Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) have been subjected to discriminatory online harassment, according to a FIFA report released earlier this year.
Brazil international Willian, who is not in his country’s World Cup squad, supports the initiative after personally encountering prejudice online.
Willian explained: “I support this campaign because I was in Brazil a year ago and I suffered a lot together with my family when people started attacking us on social media and insulting my family.
“That’s why I’m here now with FIFA to see if you can stop these kinds of things that sometimes depress me,” the spokesman said.
