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A new report has found that Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo was the most abused on Twitter in the Premier League last season.
An analysis of Britain’s communications regulator, Ofcom, of 2.3 million tweets in the first half of last season found nearly 60,000 abusive posts, affecting seven out of 10 players in the Premier League.
Half of the abuse focused on just 12 players, including eight at Manchester United.
However, the study by the Alan Turing Institute also found that the vast majority of fans use social media responsibly.
“These findings highlight the dark side of the beautiful game,” said Kevin Backhurst, director of broadcast and online content group Ofcom.
He stressed that “online abuse has no place in sport, nor in the broader society, and addressing it requires a collective effort.”
The report identified two peaks in the frequency of abusive tweets.
The first was on the day Ronaldo rejoined Manchester United on August 27, 2021, resulting in three times more tweets than on any other day (188,769), of which 3,961 were abusive.
The size of the posts can be largely accounted for due to Ronaldo’s 98.4 million followers. On this day, the Portuguese striker was mentioned in 90 percent of the tweets targeting Premier League players and 97 percent of the tweets abusive.
The second climax came on November 7 when defender Maguire tweeted an apology following Manchester United’s 2-0 home defeat to Manchester City.
On that occasion, 2,903 abusive tweets appeared, accounting for 10.6 percent of the total on that day.
The report also found a duplicate tweet, using the exact same phrase, sent to Maguire 69 times by different users within two hours.
“This repetition may have occurred because users saw the offending message and decided to repeat it,” the study says.
The Alan Turing Institute said understanding the way online abuse is becoming increasingly important given the harm caused by coordinated attacks.
Other players have been targeted with large amounts of abuse, despite receiving relatively few tweets overall.
photo released, Getty Images
Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo are at the forefront of those who have been abused
The nature of the study
In preparation to regulate tech giants under new online security laws, Ofcom teamed up with Alan Turing Institute, Britain’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, to analyze more than 2.3 million tweets directed at Premier League players over the first 5 months of the 2021-21 season. 2022.
The study used a new technique to automatically determine whether tweets were abusive, while a team of experts also reviewed a random sample of 3,000 tweets.
Of this sample, 57 percent included positive comments regarding players, 27 percent were neutral, 12.5 percent were critical, and 3.5 percent were offensive.
Of the 2.3 million tweets analyzed, 2.6 percent of tweets contained abuse.
“These stark findings reveal the extent to which footballers are vulnerable to abuse on social media,” said study lead author Dr Bertie Vidgen and head of online safety at the Alan Turing Institute.
He added: “While tackling online abuse is difficult, we cannot leave it unchecked. More must be done to stop the worst forms of content, to ensure that players can do their job without being abused.”
What are the recommendations?
Britain is preparing to introduce new laws aimed at making internet users safer, while preserving freedom of expression, with rules for sites and apps such as social media, search engines and messaging platforms.
photo released, Harry Maguire
Maguire’s tweet follows a string of poor results for Manchester United
“Social media platforms don’t need to wait for new laws to make their sites and apps safer for users,” said Backhurst, of Ofcom.
“As we become the regulators of online safety, tech companies need to be really open regarding the steps they are taking to protect users. We expect them to design their services with safety in mind,” he added.
“Our research shows that the vast majority of fans online are acting responsibly, and with the start of the new season, we are asking them to report objectionable and offensive posts whenever they see them,” he said.
Twitter says it welcomes such research to help improve conversations on its platforms.
A Twitter spokesperson said: “We are committed to fighting abuse, and as outlined in our Anti-Hate Policy, we do not tolerate abuse or harassment of people on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Twitter said it did not see the details of the data, but claimed that 50 percent of the “offending content” was found through its own operations, adding, “We know there is still work to be done.”
UEFA pledged last month to work with social media platforms to tackle online abuse.