Australian sport stars are no strangers to hate on social media. Over the past few years a number of players have spoken out about the impact of abuse targeted at their racial, gender or sexual identity.
AFLW player Tayla Harris was subjected to from comments on a photo of her kicking a goal in 2019.
AFLW player Tayla Harris Credit: Michael Willson/AFL Photos/AFL Media/Getty Images
And former A-League player Josh Hope quit football in November 2020, aged just 22, after what he describes as “relentless” online abuse. After a break from the game joined a Melbourne state league club at the start of this year.
NRL player Latrell Mitchell was the victim of harassment and online abuse in 2021 Credit: Matt King/Getty Images
But now in a world-first partnership, the A-League and Professional Footballers Australia, the player’s union, have teamed up with a software company GoBubble Community to shield players from abuse across multiple social media platforms.
The technology underwent a successful trial during the A-League’s inaugural pride games, hosted by Adelaide United in February.
It meant players such as Josh Cavallo, the world's only active gay player, were shielded from seeing hateful comments on social media platforms.
“There were over 1000 tweets around Pride Cup and just slightly less than 1 per cent of those were able to be muted or removed from the thread,'' said A-League CEO, Danny Townsend.
"Which ultimately stopped not only Josh (Cavallo) but others from being exposed to that unsavoury behaviour.
“You know we are really proud to have taken the first step and we encourage other codes to step up and put those same protections in place.”
A-League CEO Danny Townsend Credit: Mark Evans/Getty Images
It scans for words, phrases, symbols, images and emojis known to be offensive in 21 languages, when it detects an offensive comment it stops the user from seeing it as well as their followers.
The comment remains visible to the person who posted and their followers, so as to not impinge on the freedom of speech but its visibility and reach are dramatically reduced.
A spokesperson from GoBubble told The Feed the technology does cover a players inbox.
"However if an athlete ever requested this, we would work with them to bring our machine-learning technology to protect that area of their social media experience as well."
Stephen Blanks, an executive member of the NSW Council of Civil Liberties, said he can’t see any civil liberties issues with the technology but warned:
"There will be posts that are inadvertently blocked or let through and when an organisation like the A-league adopts this technology they should be very transparent as to how it works to give the public confidence that it will operate fairly."
All 22 A-League men's and women's teams as well as more than 200 players will now use the software.
PFA Co-Chief Executive Kathryn Gill told SBS News that during the pride games the social media accounts of Adelaide United, Melbourne Victory and the Central Coast Mariners were screened for hateful content.
“To be fair the majority of the content was positive but there was a lot that had LBTIQ hate content that was embedded through them,” she said.
“It’s about having that protection for the players, officials and fans knowing that they won’t be getting on these platforms and seeing hateful language, they’ll know that they’re safe.”
The A-League is the first sporting code in Australia to implement the technology, it comes in the wake of more and more sports stars calling on social media platforms to do better in censoring racist, sexist and homophobic abuse.
It’s about having that protection for the players, officials and fans knowing that they won’t be getting on these platforms and seeing hateful language, they’ll know that they’re safe.Kathryn Gill
It is a call echoed by Australia’s E-safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who congratulated the PFA, A-League and GoBubble partnership for taking initiative steps.
“We’ve found that the internet can be the cheapest seats in the house in terms of how fans are hurling all kinds of abuse at players,” she told SBS News.
“What (social media) companies really need to be doing is building in safety by design into their services.”
“They know what the risks are, they know what the harms are and need to come up with features to prevent this abuse in the first place.”
Australia’s E-safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant Source: AAP / MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE
“We know that many athletes are fearful of coming out because of the fear of online trolling,” he said.
“So this is an important move in creating an environment where athletes feel protected online, which we know improves their mental health, productivity and ultimately their athletic performance,” he said.
Andrew also said that generally athletes with the biggest profile will cop the most online abuse.
“We’ve seen that with Josh Cavallo and some of the bigger tennis players,” he said.
“If this technology is effective it would be ideal to see athletes across professional sporting codes have access to it.”
Pride in Sport co-founder Andrew Purchas
Kevin, a Melbourne Victory fan who identifies as queer, said that the implementation of this technology fills him with hope for the future.
“Some of the abuse you read online is really depraved, like genuine threats of violence my heart drops every time I see (homophobic) abuse,” he said.
“I almost anticipate and expect that (homophobic) kind of bigotry and abuse.”
“But this technology sounds good, it sounds like it will take away the oxygen from these internet trolls and bullies.”
