The All England Lawn Tennis Club is using artificial intelligence for the first time to protect Wimbledon players from online abuse.
An AI-powered service monitors players’ public social media profiles and automatically flags death threats, racism and sexist comments in 35 different languages.
High-profile players who have been targeted online, such as former US Open champion Emma Raducanu and four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, have previously spoken out about having to delete Instagram and Twitter, now called X, from their phones.
Harriet Dart, the number two in Britain’s Republican Party, has said she only uses social media occasionally because of online “hate”.
On Thursday, after her win against British number one Katie Boulter, Dart said: “I think there are a lot of positives to social media, but there are also a lot of negatives. I’m sure if I open one of my apps today, regardless of whether I win or not, I’ll get a lot of hate as well.”
Tournament director Jamie Baker said Wimbledon had introduced social media monitoring service Threat Matrix. The system, developed by artificial intelligence company Signify Group, will also be deployed at the US Open.
Baker said: “This is not something you see in the public domain at all. You won’t see us shouting about it, but we’re basically browsing social media looking for this kind of content and that means we can get information we haven’t had in the past.
“We don’t just rely on what the player might say has happened to them, but if there is anything that is of concern, then our security team will step in and really help do something about it.”
He said the AI-powered service was backed by people monitoring accounts. Players can opt for a more comprehensive service that analyses abuse or threats through private direct messages.
Baker, a former British No 2, said Wimbledon would consult with players about abuse before reporting it to technology companies for removal or to the police if deemed necessary.
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Explaining how the service works, Baker said: “If we have something that we think is a concern or worth pointing out, it ultimately comes down to engaging with the player and then dealing with next steps on that. The benefit of having it is that you have the ability to officially log what’s going on with the right people there.
“But we wouldn’t take any of those steps without really engaging with the player and their teams to try to get a sense of what’s going on.”
World Rugby also uses the service, leading to an Australian man being successfully prosecuted in April after a referee and his wife received threatening and abusive messages via Facebook during the World Cup.
Wimbledon said Threat Matrix had conducted a study in which it monitored more than 1.6 million public posts on X and 19,000 Instagram comments sent to 454 players competing in a variety of professional tennis tournaments in 2022 and found that one in four players had been subjected to abuse. It identified 546 offensive posts from 438 accounts.