It has become one of the unfortunate hallmarks of modern sport: every other week, it seems, another club, league or athlete is forced to publicly call out a racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise bigoted comment made on social media.
The behaviour is condemned, the target is supported, and occasionally a fan’s membership or season ticket is cancelled as punishment – that is, if the culprit is actually identified. Then the cycle continues anew.
The A-Leagues, PFA and GoBubble Community have joined forces to roll out new technology designed to protect players from seeing abusive messages on social media.
Perhaps, until now. In what is believed to be a world first, the A-Leagues have rolled out new software which uses machine-learning technology to stop any abusive comments from being seen by the players they are directed towards – and their thousands of followers.
British tech company GoBubble Community has partnered with the A-Leagues and Professional Footballers Australia, the players’ union, to introduce the automated filter to work across the accounts of every single player and club in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
It uses AI machine learning to scan, store, and remember words, phrases, symbols, images and emojis that are known to be offensive, and blocks and reports any offensive messages so that the person behind the account doesn’t see them, and neither do their followers. The offender’s comment is still delivered and visible to their followers, so it does not impinge on freedom of speech, but the target is none the wiser and the broader visibility of the comment is dramatically reduced. GoBubble’s website claims it works with 99 per cent efficiency.
The A-Leagues and APL believe that, short of any genuine action from social media companies, which is considered highly unlikely, using GoBubble’s technology is the best possible way to protect players and athletes from the mental and emotional impact of online hate.
Josh Cavallo has hailed the new technology as a “game changer” for footballers.Credit:Getty
The move has been hailed as a “game changer” by Josh Cavallo, the openly gay Adelaide United star who has previously railed against Facebook and Instagram for not doing enough to stop social media abuse, and asked police earlier this year to investigate death threats made against him.
The software was successfully trialled in February on the Twitter profiles of Adelaide United, Melbourne Victory and Central Coast Mariners, the teams involved in a men’s and women’s ‘Pride Cup’ double-header at Coopers Stadium – a fixture instigated by Cavallo, who last year became the first active male professional in the world to come out as gay.