The body detailed on Wednesday the results of an investigation concerning the online harassment of players and referees during the last World Cup. A quarter of the reports concern accounts based in France.
Published
Reading time: 1 min
Legal action has been taken in Australia and other jurisdictions over cases of cyberharassment during the last Rugby World Cup, World Rugby announced in a statement released on Wednesday (January 31). “More than 1,600 abusive accounts have been reported to the platforms, leading to the removal of 90% of the most serious content”indicated the authority.
These figures come from a study carried out (in English) on 900 accounts on social networks (mainly Instagram and X, formerly Twitter) of players, coaches and referees. These were monitored during the tournament, with the help of artificial intelligence, to achieve these results. “This constitutes the largest service of its type in the sporting field.”, rejoiced World Rugby. According to observations, 49% of the abuses recorded during the World Cup targeted members of the refereeing body.
France concentrates 25% of abuses
The British Wayne Barnes alone, on the whistle for the final between South Africa and New Zealand, thus concentrates a third of the insults. “Those who harass or threaten […] must understand that their actions will have consequences […]. This behavior simply has no place in rugby and in society.”said the recently retired referee, in the World Rugby press release.
“The match officials were the fourth ‘team'” the most impacted of the tournament, noted the body, while England was the most affected. France alone accounts for a quarter of the accounts causing abuse, and is well ahead of South Africa (19%) and England (12%). The peak of insults was also recorded on the evening of the Blues’ elimination against the Springboks, where the refereeing embodied on the field by Ben O’Keeffe had been widely castigated.
