During her visit to “Sportpanorama”, Belinda Bencic spoke about hate comments on the Internet. A problem that doesn’t just exist in tennis.
Click to open the share function.
Insults, fantasies of violence, threats – hatred on the internet has become part of everyday life for many athletes. “It’s so normal that it doesn’t really bother me anymore. Since I was 16, I’ve been getting thousands of messages after a game,” said Belinda Bencic during her visit to “Sportpanorama”.
The woman from Eastern Switzerland is not the only one who is fed up. In October she made news public again on social media. Messages that are not only extremely offensive and below the belt, but even include death threats.
Eva Lys also made her experiences with online hate public last week. The currently best-ranked German tennis player sees the main problem in people who place sports bets: “You get messages in which they write how much money they have lost because of you, and they threaten you and tell you to transfer it back. They have no shame. Those who are insulting are death threats. Sexism. Everything.”
Almost all athletes are affected
It’s not like online hate only affects established tour players. And not explicitly just women either. The young Swiss tennis hope Henry Bernet also knows the dark side of social media. “Roger Federer Wannabe” is one of the nicer things. “‘I hope you get cancer,’ I’ve also heard, or ‘I hope your family dies,'” are the 18-year-old’s shocking examples.
Swiss Tennis has been trying to specifically prepare young players for things like this for several years. “Every junior squad attends media training between the ages of 14 and 18,” says Florian Künzi, media officer at the National Tennis Association. The topic of hate messages is “unfortunately part of it”.
With AI to combat the flood of hate messages
Hate online is not just a problem in tennis. Almost all athletes are exposed to hostility, and anonymity on the Internet massively lowers their inhibitions. Racism and sexism are commonplace not only in football, but in many other sports.
More and more clubs are therefore relying on technical measures to detect and delete hate comments with the help of AI. Numerous associations, including the WTA, are looking for cooperation with specialized companies. An AI filters huge amounts of comments and messages, then employees check each relevant case. Critical content is forwarded to social media platforms, associations or, if necessary, authorities.
In the past, affected athletes had to take action themselves. With this measure they can be protected at least to some extent. Bencic welcomes this development. But it is also clear to her that the problem cannot be completely contained. «You can’t escape it. You have to ignore it and not take it personally. And just know that it’s coming.” A sad reality.
Click to open the share function.
