ATP Tour Reveals Alarming Figures of Social Media Abuse Against Players
The ATP Tour announced this Thursday that its Safe Sport initiative has detected more than 162,000 abusive comments on social media directed at players during its first year of operation. According to the organization, more than 3.1 million comments were analyzed, hiding those classified as the most severe from the 245 players who were the target of these attacks. Safe Sport uses real-time artificial intelligence to detect and hide inappropriate comments on players’ accounts. The initiative, launched in July 2024, is available to the top 250 players in singles and the top 50 in doubles.Azzopardi added that the initiative has “fundamentally changed the way we protect our athletes online”. Safe Sport also provides support to players facing threats via email, impersonation, deepfakes, and scams.“More than 1 in 10 comments on players’ posts were abusive, reaching 50% in extreme cases,” said Andrew Azzopardi, ATP’s Director of Protection.
Andrew Azzopardi, ATP Director of Protection
