“I hope your mother dies soon”, “You’re shit”… Athletes receive hate messages from Internet users who don’t care about what they can do to their morale. A scourge encouraged by sports betting, denounces tennis player Caroline Garcia.
“You may think that this doesn’t hurt us. But it does. We are human beings. And sometimes when we receive these messages, we are already emotionally destroyed after a difficult setback. And they can be damaging,” warns Caroline Garcia (30th in the WTA rankings) in a message published on X.
The tennis player sounded the alarm about cyberbullying after her first-round loss at the US Open on August 28, which prompted “hundreds” of insulting messages.
I literally spend 30 minutes a day blocking all of these people.
Coco Gauff, American tennis player who also says she receives hate messages
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The Frenchwoman is not the only one to suffer. Russian Karen Khachanov (22nd in the ATP ranking) also posted a message of this type the day after his defeat against Dan Evans in a match lasting 5 hours and 35 minutes, the longest in the history of the US Open. “Please, I ask you to be respectful. Do not hit a man when he is down.”
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Like “the days when cigarette brands sponsored sports”
Caroline Garcia is worried about the younger generations “who are coming and who are going to have to go through this. People who have not yet fully developed as human beings and who could be affected by this hatred.”
She attributes these cyberbullyings to sports betting and those who bet on matches whose results disappointed them. The problem, she says, is that sports tournaments are associated with sports betting brands. “The days when cigarette brands sponsored sports are long gone. Yet we are promoting betting companies that are actively destroying people’s lives,” says Caroline Garcia.
The French player regrets that “no progress has been made”, although this type of message has been pointed out several times by her and “many” others. The French number one in the ATP ranking, Ugo Humbert, had already entrusted to the daily newspaper Libération being the target of it during the Roland-Garros tournament. “Whether you win, whether you lose, you get insults all the time.”
Blocking, complaint, AI…
Faced with this lack of protective measures, everyone is trying to find their own solution.
American tennis player Coco Gauff (WTA No. 3) is content to block malicious senders. “It’s hard because you hear a lot of nasty stuff and people talk about your appearance, your family… If you’re already struggling with mental health issues, it’s hard. Personally, I just block. I literally spend 30 minutes a day blocking all these people,” she admitted at a press conference on August 28.
Frenchman Jules Marie (213th in the ATP ranking) decided to file a complaint after being the victim of another form of cyberbullying: a hoax announced his entry into the US Open qualifying draw. The complaint also denounces psychological violence and moral harassment.
Since May 2023, the French Grand Slam has offered its competitors and organizers the use of the Bodyguard application and its AI to manage the real-time moderation of their social networks one week before and after the tournament.
>> To go further, also read: More than 1 in 5 female gamers targeted by cyberbullying
Radio topic: Grégoire Oggier
Article web: Julie Marty
2024-09-02 12:54:47