NCAA wants social platforms to stop online harassment

LEGAL

Over the past several months, the NCAA has partnered with Signify Group — using its Threat Matrix service powered by artificial intelligence — to investigate online harassment in college sports.

On Thursday, the NCAA released the complete summary analysis from the Division I championships pilot study, which monitored public comments targeting the online profiles of student-athletes, coaches and officials participating in seven NCAA championships and the College Football Playoff National Championship. Based on the jarring findings from this pilot study, leaders in college sports today called on fans and social media companies to curb rampant online abuse. 

Signify Group’s analysts reviewed more than 72,000 messages that were flagged by their AI-based algorithm from a wider dataset of 1.3 million posts/comments targeted at the social media profiles of student-athletes, coaches and officials taking part in the events. From the messages analyzed, the team verified over 5,000 posts containing abusive, discriminatory or threatening content. These messages have been reported to social media platforms for action. The study revealed: 

  • 18% of all abuse was sexual, making it the most prevalent type of abuse used to target male and female student-athletes. 
  • 12% of all abuse was related to sports betting, with more than 740 instances. As betting markets increased, so did the prevalence of harassment, with 19% rates in men’s basketball and football. Some abuse flagged in other categories indicated that the posts were betting-related.
  • 10% of abuse consisted of racist content. 
  • 9% of abuse was homophobic/transphobic. 
  • 6% of abuse, approximately 380 instances, was violent. 
  • 80% of the abuse in the study was directed at March Madness student-athletes.
    • Women’s basketball student-athletes received approximately three times more threats than men’s basketball student-athletes.

“I’ve heard too many student-athletes talk about abusive messages they have received, and for the first time ever, we now have evidence of the scale at which this is occurring. It’s incredibly alarming and completely unacceptable,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “Fans have to do better, social media companies have to do more to identify and remove this content, and we all need reminders about responsible social media usage. Student-athletes come to college hoping to fulfill their athletic and academic dreams, and our job at the NCAA is to provide them with the most fulfilling experience possible. We will exhaust all options to reduce the harassment and vitriol student-athletes are experiencing too often today.”

In December, the NCAA announced that it engaged Signify Group to provide its Threat Matrix service to support the Association in studying and responding to online abuse and threats directed at NCAA championship participants, including student-athletes, coaches, officials and committee members. This unique initiative was implemented to further promote the mental health and well-being of the college sports community through data collection, analytics and action. 

In May, a preliminary set of data trends was released, detailing some of the abuse observed during March Madness across the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships. Notably, more than 540 abusive betting-related messages were directed at men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes and game officials, including death threats.

“College athletics ignites passion and creates enthusiastic fan bases that cheer on our student-athletes,” Duke Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King said. “We welcome the positive support and dedication but will not tolerate any form of abuse that threatens student-athlete mental health and well-being. There is absolutely no place for harassment or discrimination of any kind in college sports. We are committed to protecting student-athletes who should be celebrated for their academic and athletic achievements in a safe environment, free from online abuse and harm.”

Besides the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, Signify Group monitored additional championships in the division: women’s volleyball, Football Championship Subdivision football, softball and baseball. The study also included the National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships and the College Football Playoff National Championship. In total, the study monitored the accounts of 3,164 student-athletes, 489 coaches, 197 game officials, 165 teams and 12 NCAA official channels, resulting in findings of 16 categories of online abuse and threats across all championships. 

“This initiative has been a fascinating learning exercise,” said Jonathan Hirshler, CEO of Signify Group. “Our Threat Matrix service is used across global sports, covering some of the highest profile athletes on the planet. Our analysts were therefore astounded to see student-athletes receiving volumes of targeted abuse that compare to professional sportsmen and women playing at the very highest levels of world sport. This data underpins the NCAA’s admirable work in this area as these student-athletes (together with coaches and officials) clearly require support.”

Men’s and Women’s March Madness participants (student-athletes, coaches and officials) received the most abuse — nearly 4,000 verified abusive messages, with 80% of all verified malicious content occurring during the tournaments. 

“Online abuse and cyberbullying have no place in our society or college athletics,” Purdue men’s basketball head coach Matt Painter said. “Thousands of student-athletes across the country face harassment every day on social media, and the bullying can affect their mental health well-being, causing stress, depression and suicidal thoughts. The increased exposure to online gambling only exacerbates the online abuse, with many student-athletes receiving death threats via social media. We are asking all social media companies and platforms to do more to identify and remove these online threats and make their platforms safer for everyone.”

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