World Athletics finds sexist comments towards women make up over 40% of all posts
\n PARIS
\nOnline abuse during July\u2019s world championships in Oregon was overwhelmingly directed at female athletes, with two competitors \u2013 a man and a woman \u2013 accounting for 40% of all abuse detected, World Athletics said Friday.
\nIn a study conducted during the World Athletics Championships in Eugene to identify and address abusive comments sent to athletes via Twitter and Instagram, findings reveal that sexualised and sexist abuse \u2013 overwhelmingly targeted at female athletes \u2013 made up over 40% of all detected posts.
\nThe accounts of 461 competitors were monitored between July 10-August 1 in a bid to detect any abuse leading in and out of the championships, as well as during the event itself. Some 427,764 posts and comments on Twitter and Instagram were captured for analysis.
\nThe study revealed that 27 of the 461 tracked athletes, including 16 women, received targeted abuse with Twitter the preferred channel, accounting for almost 60% of detected abuse.
\nTwo athletes (one male and one female) received almost 40% of detected abuse between them.
\nWorld Athletics said abuse \u201ctended to be driven by events outside of competition \u2013 athletes were targeted over controversies associated with athletics, but not necessarily driven by results in the stadium\u201d.
\n\u201cThe results of this study are disturbing but it\u2019s important that we know where and how our athletes are being abused on social media so we can take steps to protect them and prevent future occurrences,\u201d World Athletics president Seb Coe said.
\n\u201cThere is no place for abusive behaviour in our sport and we need to send a clear message to those who think athletes are fair game for this mistreatment. We won\u2019t hesitate to sanction individuals who abuse our athletes where we can identify them.\u201d
\nThe study said that \u201c60% of all detected online abuse was sexual or racial in nature with racism comments depicted in the form of offensive deployment of the N-word, and in the use of monkey emojis against black athletes\u201d.
\n\u201cWhen abuse types are broken down by gender, half of all abuse targeting female athletes was of a sexualised nature.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World Athletics finds sexist comments towards women make up over 40% of all posts PARIS Online abuse during July\u2019s world championships in Oregon was overwhelmingly directed at female athletes, with two competitors \u2013 a man and a woman \u2013 accounting for 40% of all abuse detected, World Athletics said Friday. In a study conducted during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-299110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n