Paris [France], August 10: Online abuse is an increasing threat to athletes, officials and sporting communities, with the scale and sophistication of harmful online behaviour continuing to evolve. As the world marked Safe Sport Day on 8 August, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published a new report based on findings from its Cyber-Abuse Protection Service (CAPS), which analysed 4.3 million posts and comments across the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, identifying nearly 25,000 abusive messages.
The report highlights the scale of the challenge and shares practical insights to help sports organisations strengthen safeguarding and better protect their communities online.
Across Paris 2024 and Milano Cortina 2026, CAPS analysed 4.3 million posts and comments directed at more than 26,000 athletes' and officials' social media handles.
The service monitored around 20,000 accounts and 45 languages during Paris 2024, and more than 6,000 accounts and 56 languages at Milano Cortina 2026.
Overall, AI flagged approximately 242,000 posts and comments as potentially abusive for human review, including 152,000 during Paris 2024 and around 90,000 during Milano Cortina 2026.
Analysts subsequently verified around 24,700 abusive posts and comments, including 10,200 at Paris and 14,500 at Milano Cortina, and identified approximately 18,900 unique accounts responsible for abusive messages (8,900 at Paris; ~10,000 at Milano Cortina).
The rapid advancement of AI has increased the scale, sophistication and impact of online abuse in sport, including through AI-generated media, deepfakes, automated harassment campaigns and impersonation through fake accounts.
The report concludes that cyber protection systems alone are not enough, noting the importance of combining technology with human oversight, welfare support, clear policies and collaboration.
The publication of the report forms part of the IOC's wider commitment to strengthening safe sport across the Olympic Movement.
Source: Emirates News Agency
