Tennis organizations use artificial intelligence to identify cyberbullies

Tennis organizations use artificial intelligence to identify cyberbullies
UPI

Dec. 19 (UPI) — Top professional tennis organizations used artificial intelligence to find about 12,000 comments cyberbullies aimed at players and officials and reported 15 highly abusive authors to authorities, they announced Thursday.

The International Tennis Federation, All England Lawn Tennis Club and Untied States Tennis Association launched Threat Matrix in 2023. The initiative uses artificial intelligence and human expertise to detect and analyze abuse and take action against authors.

Threat Matrix, which operates in 39 languages, went live in January.

“Abusers should be under no illusion — we will pursue criminal prosecution where we can, seek to exclude them from access to major social media platforms and ban them from attending our events,” the tennis bodies said in a joint statement.

“As we enter 2025, the Threat Matrix initiative will be further enhanced to include support with direct messaging abuse protection for those who need it. We are realistic about the battle we face, but are resolute in doing whatever we can to protect our athletes, their mental health and overall well-being from online abuse.”

Threat Matrix examines X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, while also monitoring abuse or threats through private direct messaging.

The service monitored nearly 2.5 million posts between January and October, verifying 12,000 posts and comments to them as abusive and reporting them to social media platforms for the removal of the abuse or the account from which the abuse originated.

The tennis bodies said 52 social media accounts sent 10 or more abusive posts/comments, and 26 received suspensions. The remaining cases are under review.

The Threat Matrix determined that “angry gamblers” accounted for 48% of the abuse. Sexists remarks and sexually inappropriate content were the most comment abuse forms. The volume of the abuse increased during Grand Slams.

“It is only by collective effort from players, law enforcers, betting operators, governing bodies and the social platforms that we will bring about change,” said Stuart Miller, senior executive director for integrity & legal for the ITF.

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