The WTA is Cracking Down on Online Abuse Targeting Tennis Players

The WTA is spearheading a multi-agency crackdown of online abuse targeting tennis players.

The WTA logo at the BNP Paribas Open WTA 1000 tennis tournament at Indian Wells. / IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

The vast majority of tennis fans can agree there is no room for negativity in the sport. Unfortunately, social media often amplifies the worst voices in the sport.

But today, there is good news. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), International Tennis Federation (ITF), The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), and United States Tennis Association (USTA) unveiled the findings of a coordinated approach to combat online abuse against players, officials, and the wider tennis family.

The bodies came together in 2023 to begin a ground-breaking initiative that uses the Threat Matrix service to monitor player and tennis family public-facing social media accounts for abusive and threatening content on X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. 

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. ⁰⁰This is the message from the ITF, WTA, Wimbledon and (USTA) United States Tennis… pic.twitter.com/jaCq6msxCe

— ITF (@ITFTennis) December 19, 2024

The service went live in January 2024 and automatically covers any player who competes in the WTA Tour, ITF World Tennis Tour, The Championships, and the US Open events.

Threat Matrix utilizes artificial intelligence and human expertise to detect, analyze, identify, and take action against abusers. The system works in 39 languages and currently protects 7,739 players competing in ITF World.

Tennis Tour tournaments and 563 players competing in WTA tournaments. All men and women players competing in the main draw and qualifying rounds for Wimbledon and the US Open were also covered by Threat Matrix, as well as Chair Umpires at those events.

The service is designed to:

• Automatically monitor all social media posts to the players (and officials, during Wimbledon and the US Open) for harassment, abuse, and threat.
• Provide rapid threat assessment of personal safety.

• Alert social platforms of abuse and fixated threats, to facilitate removal of the offending content.
• Support law enforcement agencies in the investigation of the most serious cases.
• Include educational support programs to help players mitigate abuse and threat.

Between January and October 2024, the service monitored 2.47 million posts. From these, around 12,000 posts and comments were verified as abusive (i.e., regarded as breaking social media platform community guidelines) and referred to social media platforms for removal of the abuse, or, in serious cases, the entire account.

A spokesperson for WTA, ITF, AELTC and USTA said, “Protecting our players and the wider tennis family from online abuse is critical to us all. That’s why we came together a year ago to put a proactive monitoring service in place for our athletes and officials.

“Through the Threat Matrix initiative, approximately 12,000 verified abusive posts and comments have been reported to the social media platforms for action in the last ten months alone, and the identities of 15 highly abusive account authors have been passed to national law enforcement for action.

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.

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.”

Sportsmanship at its finest 💜#CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/5e7S8k4ATe

— wta (@WTA) August 19, 2024

Key trends, insights and action include:

• Abuse from 15 accounts was regarded as having breached criminal thresholds and was passed to the relevant national law enforcement for action.
• A small number of accounts were the source of prolific abuse. 52 accounts sent 10 or more abusive posts/comments, 26 of which have now been suspended following referral by Threat Matrix with the remaining cases under platform review.

• ‘Angry gamblers’ are a significant motivation of abuse, accounting for 48% of all abuse in the period under review.
• Sexist remarks and sexually explicit or inappropriate content were the most common categories of abuse. Five scams, in which player accounts were cloned, were detected and reported to local authorities.
• Increased volumes of abusive content, which correlate with heightened visibility and interest in tennis, were noted during periods in which Grand Slams were held.

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