USWNT Was Disproportionately Targeted With Online Abuse During 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Report Finds

Months after the 2023 Women's World Cup concluded, FIFA is lifting the veil on what players endured during the tournament.

On Monday, FIFA and players' union FIFPRO released a report detailing the online hate and abuse that players, teams and officials received throughout the World Cup. The analysis was done as part of FIFA's Social Media Protection Service (SMPS), which was launched in 2022 ahead of the Men's World Cup in Qatar.

After monitoring official team accounts for all 32 teams, four tournament accounts and personal accounts for players and ex-players/media, and analyzing millions of posts and comments through a mix of artificial intelligence and human reviewers, the results are in.

According to the report, one in five players at the Women's World Cup was a target of online abuse, and players from the United States collectively received more online abuse than players from any other country. U.S. players were subject to nearly 4,000 abusive comments, almost three times as many as the next highest country (Argentina).

The report also found that one player from the USWNT and one from Argentina were targeted more than anyone else. Although the names of the players were not released, the data likely refers to U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe and Argentinian forward Yamila Rodríguez. Rapinoe is often targeted, especially by right-wing pundits, for her stances on LGBTQ rights, social justice initiatives and political beliefs. Rodríguez, meanwhile, has been subject to intense online hate in Argentina for having a tattoo of Cristiano Ronaldo, which some Argentinians believed meant she was against legendary midfielder and hometown hero Lionel Messi.

Online hate peaked after the USWNT's loss to Sweden in penalties on August 6. Rapinoe was especially targeted after that match for missing a penalty kick. The report also said that politicians sending support to the USWNT received "large spikes of abuse from their own political opponents."

Abuse peaked for Argentina, and likely for Rodríguez, on August 2, after Argentina was eliminated from the knockout round with a loss to Sweden.

England and Spain were two of the highest recipients of abuse, due in part to the fact that they remained in the tournament the longest. Both teams received significant abuse after the final match, which Spain won 1-0.

Along with general abuse (23.31%), homophobia was especially prevalent (20.40%) in the online hate, as well as sexually abusive language (15.03%), sexism (13.70%) and racism (9.89%). The full report can be found here.

As part of the study, FIFA's Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) flagged 103,000 of comments. More than 7,085 posts or comments (a vast majority of which were on X, formerly known on Twitter) were confirmed by reviewers as abusive and were reported to the social media platforms. SMPS also flagged and hid more than 116,000 inflammatory or abusive comments under the accounts it was monitoring. The report noted that social media platforms were often inconsistent when it came to taking down hateful posts and comments.

The report also said that SMPS verified the identity of hundreds of owners of abusive accounts, with a "high probability" of identifying a couple thousand more. When possible, the report said, those individuals were presented to local associations and law enforcement to take further action.

The report found that Women's World Cup players were 29% more likely to be targeted by online hate than players who competed at last year's Men's World Cup.

The report quoted two players — New Zealand's Ali Riley and Colombia's Leicy Santos — about how online abuse affects players' mental health.

"Beyond what we do as professional footballers, we are people," Santos said. "Some players are able to put up with the outrageous abuse we receive online, but other players aren't."