Signify

It’s been a huge privilege to work with WTA, International Tennis Federation, Wimbledon & (USTA) United States Tennis Association to protect 8,000 players and officials from online abuse across 2024. Through this unique partnership approach: 🔹 12k posts/comments have been reported to platforms 🔹 15 account holders have been reported to law enforcement for egregious abuse 🔹 Rapid threat assessment for individuals and events has been provided 🔹 Tailored education programmes have been put in place to support players We look forward to 2025 and expanding our support to the global tennis family in this crucial space.

World Athletics has unveiled the findings of the ground-breaking four-year study analysing online abuse in athletics. (Report link available in the news story below). World Athletics conducted the study using Signify’s Threat Matrix service. This is the first time an international federation has conducted such an in-depth, longitudinal analysis of online abuse. The study spanned a four-year event cycle covering track, field and road athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021), World Athletics Championships Oregon 2022, World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In total, more than 1.4 million posts or comments were analysed across the study period, protecting 2,438 athletes participating in World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games. As well as providing insights into online abuse and threats during the four major events, taking real world action lies at the heart of World Athletics’ approach to protecting its athlete community. Across the period, this has included: 🔹1,258 posts and comments reported through to the relevant platform 🔹254 accounts verified to have sent abusive or threatening content have been escalated to the relevant platforms  🔹25 athletes have been offered year-round AI protection on some of their social media platforms after having been identified as highly-targeted individuals during major events – this will be expanded over the next year(s) 🔹Two serious cases have been highlighted to authorities after the accounts had been identified and evidence gathered 🔹Educational materials have been created and distributed to athletes to provide more information on how to better protect themselves and their accounts online and more are currently in development It has been brilliant to work with World Athletics on this project and we are looking forward to supporting global athletes going forwards. #Athletics #OnlineAbuse #Safeguarding #MentalHealth #Performance #ThreatMatrix https://lnkd.in/dKjRG8vb

It is brilliant to be able to report some of the numbers of the FIFA Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) for the #InternationalDayOfTolerance and also to highlight the extended access to the service to all 211 member associations, ensuring protective measures are offered to teams regardless of whether they will qualify for FIFA tournaments or not. The service is a powerful sign of intent from FIFA – offering proactive protection to players across the globe. It has been running since the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and covers men’s, women’s and youth teams by detecting, analysing and actioning abusive, discriminatory and violent content targeting players, coaches, match officials and teams - keeping their social media experience free from online abuse, helping them (and fans of football more generally) to enjoy taking part in FIFA’s events. #football #onlineabuse #FIFA #SMPS #ThreatMatrix https://lnkd.in/e97w-Kxi

At the end of World Mental Health Month, World Athletics published findings as part of a four-year study conducted with Signify’s Threat Matrix service - aimed at identifying and reporting abusive messages sent to athletes via social media platforms. The study covered track-and-field athletes participating at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Key findings: 🔹Racism and sexualised online abuse continue to be used to target athletes, making up more than 48% of the results 🔹809 total posts were verified as abusive, with 128 posts and comments (16%) escalated to the relevant platform for additional action 🔹2 of these cases escalated to higher authorities by World Athletics 🔹1,917 athletes with at least one active account were monitored for online abuse during the Paris Games across four social media platforms – 12 times the size sampled during the Tokyo Olympics The study is the fourth of its kind published by World Athletics and Signify, covering the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships in Oregon and Budapest respectively, and now the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The four-year comparative analysis covering all four major global athletics events is due for release later this year and will focus on developments over the course of these years. It will also outline measures World Athletics will be taking in the future, including the valuable insights this research will provide to experts in the field of athlete welfare and mental health, helping to develop more robust support systems with regards to online abuse. #Athletics #Sport #OnlineAbuse #MentalHealth #Safeguarding #ThreatMatrix For more insights and analysis from the study, please follow this link: https://lnkd.in/dJWxQvPE

Since December 2023, the NCAA has partnered with Signify — using our AI Threat Matrix service — to investigate online harassment in college sports. Today, the NCAA releases the complete summary analysis from the Division I championships pilot study, which monitored public comments targeting the online profiles of student-athletes, coaches and officials participating in seven NCAA championships and the College Football Playoff National Championship.   From a dataset of 1.3 million posts/comments targeted at the social media profiles of student-athletes, coaches and officials taking part in the events, over 5,000 posts were verified by our AI and in-house analysts as containing abusive, discriminatory or threatening content. Captured abusive content was reported to platforms, and evidence of content that passed the threshold of criminal activity / hateful communications was shared with law enforcement (via the NCAA) to support real-world action. The study revealed: 🔹 18% of all abuse was sexual, making it the most prevalent type of abuse used to target male and female student-athletes. 🔹 12% of all abuse was related to sports betting, with more than 740 instances. As betting markets increased, so did the prevalence of harassment, with 19% rates in men's basketball and football. Some abuse flagged in other categories indicated that the posts were betting-related. 🔹 10% of abuse consisted of racist content. 🔹 9% of abuse was homophobic/transphobic. 🔹 6% of abuse, approximately 380 instances, was violent. 🔹 80% of the abuse in the study was directed at March Madness student-athletes. 🔹 Women's basketball student-athletes received approximately three times more threats than men's basketball student-athletes. Purdue men's basketball head coach Matt Painter said. "Thousands of student-athletes across the country face harassment every day on social media, and the bullying can affect their mental health well-being, causing stress, depression and suicidal thoughts. The increased exposure to online gambling only exacerbates the online abuse, with many student-athletes receiving death threats via social media." "This groundbreaking study will assist the Association to analyze and assess risks to devise effective solutions and guardrails to protect student-athletes from abusive threats and harms," said Clint Hangebrauck, NCAA managing director of enterprise risk management. "The NCAA will continue to work with Signify, campus leaders, social platforms, law enforcement, betting operators and government officials to combat this horrific behavior and drive change for college sports and society." See the link below for the full summary and public version of the study’s report: #WorldMentalHealthDay #NCAA #CollegeSport #OnlineAbuse #ThreatMatrix https://lnkd.in/ebGZb9W4

On #WorldMentalHealthDay, the International Olympic Committee – IOC has released the initial figures from the cyber abuse protection service that was put in place during the Olympic Games Paris 2024. This was the largest initiative to combat cyber abuse in sport to date, protecting over 10,400 athletes and officials from all Olympic Summer sports from over 200 countries. This initiative was fully integrated with the IOC's safeguarding and mental health initiatives on the ground, ensuring wellbeing support was available. A full report will be released later in the year, but initial results are below👇 🔹 2.4 million posts and comments from the 20,000 athletes’ and officials’ social media handles analysed, in real-time and in over 35 languages 🔹 152,000+ posts and comments flagged as being potentially abusive via AI 🔹 10,200+ posts and comments verified as abusive and reported 🔹 353 athletes / officials were directly targeted with abuse 🔹 8,900 unique accounts sending abusive messages 🔹 dominant type of abuse was gender-based, with sexual/sexist violence specifically targeting female athletes 🔹 male athletes accounted for approximately 70% of all athletes targeted by online abuse 👉 Full story on the IOC website: https://lnkd.in/e5ubyF9j #mentalhealth #wellbeing #health #sport #onlineabuse

I am delighted to report than on #WorldMentalHealthDay, the International Olympic Committee – IOC has released the initial figures from the cyber abuse protection service that was put in place during the Olympic Games Paris 2024. This was the largest initiative to combat cyber abuse in sport to date, protecting over 10,400 athletes and officials from all Olympic Summer sports from over 200 countries. This initiative was fully integrated with the IOC's safeguarding and mental health initiatives on the ground, ensuring wellbeing support was available. A full report will be released later in the year, but initial results are below👇 🔹 2.4 million posts and comments from the 20,000 athletes’ and officials’ social media handles analysed, in real-time and in over 35 languages 🔹 152,000+ posts and comments flagged as being potentially abusive via AI 🔹 10,200+ posts and comments verified as abusive and reported 🔹 353 athletes / officials were directly targeted with abuse 🔹 8,900 unique accounts sending abusive messages 🔹 dominant type of abuse was gender-based, with sexual/sexist violence specifically targeting female athletes 🔹 male athletes accounted for approximately 70% of all athletes targeted by online abuse 👉 Full story on the IOC website: https://lnkd.in/e5ubyF9j #mentalhealth #wellbeing #health #sport #onlineabuse

ESPN has been given an exclusive first look at the results of our project with the NCAA before the full findings are published tomorrow. The NCAA partnered with Signify, and we monitored social media accounts for more than 3,000 college athletes, 500 coaches, 200 event officials and 165 teams during several college championships including: the 2024 College Football Playoff, Men’s & Women’s March Madness, Men’s & Women’s College World Series, and the Volleyball and Gymnastics championships. In the first of the findings to be released, abuse by "angry sports bettors" is one of the most common types of harassment college athletes receive, making up at least 12% of publicly posted social media abuse. The NCAA shared a handful of examples of abusive messages sent during March Madness, including one directed at a high-profile men's basketball player before a tournament game that read, "Yo no big deal but if you don't get 22 points and 12 boards everyone you know and love will Be dead." Other examples included requests for money. The analysis flagged 743 abusive or threatening messages referencing betting or match-fixing allegations, with 73% of them occurring during March Madness, the most popular event with American bettors. Women athletes received approximately 59% more abusive messages than men, the analysis found. See below for more on the initial findings before the full results are published tomorrow. #OnlineAbuse #Threat #CollegeSports #Betting #Gambling #NCAA #ThreatMatrix https://lnkd.in/eg4QmGxC

Delighted to announce Joe Sayers, former Senior Insights Lead at Manchester United FC, has joined Signify's growing sports division as Group Sports Insights Director. Joe will work alongside Jake Marsh, Signify’s Head of Sport, and Signify Co-Founder and Insights Lead, Joe Harrod, to further enhance the company’s Insights offerings, whilst also supporting the continued growth of Threat Matrix, now the world’s leading service protecting athletes and officials from online abuse. Joe Sayers: “Having watched the growth of Signify closely over the last few years, I am delighted to be joining such a talented and driven team with an amazing tech offering that can enhance every level of a sports organisation. Through their impactful work with Threat Matrix, Signify have established an amazing array of global sporting clients and with our unique insights and strategic capabilities we can become a vital partner for sports organisations, agencies and players alike.” “Deepening fan engagement goes far beyond just driving vanity metrics, with the insight we can deliver you can build affinity and a deeper connection with your fans across social. Understanding how fan culture evolves, who influences the narratives around your brand and how to leverage that can supercharge your content strategy and help you build your fan base.” Read more about Joe and Signify's work here:

Excited to lead this conversation tomorrow about what athletes are facing in today’s social media climate, as well as what we’re doing at WTA in partnership with #ThreatMatrix to help prevent it in tennis and beyond. Special thanks to Signify for providing me with the data for this presentation.