Massive Surge in Online Hate: Unprecedented Levels Compared to Previous World Cup

FIFA's Social Media Protection Service (SMPS) shielded players from 89,000 verified abusive posts during the initial phase of the tournament. This marks a significant increase from the 6,700 such posts identified during the same stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Despite this year's championship featuring 48 teams compared to 32 four years ago, FIFA states that the statistics remain concerning. Approximately one thousand accounts were flagged for further investigation following the detection of 89,000 abusive posts.

According to DPA, FIFA reported that 11% of all recorded abusive posts were racist in nature. Artificial intelligence flagged around 225,000 posts for manual review, of which 89,000 were subsequently confirmed as abusive.

The SMPS is also actively gathering evidence for law enforcement agencies. FIFA announced that during the group stage of the 2026 World Cup, it identified over 100 cases that meet the legal criteria for preparing judicial files.

Over 2 million comments were hidden through moderation during the tournament's group stage, representing a 400% increase compared to the same phase of the 2022 World Cup. The SMPS is available to all teams, players, coaches, and referees participating in the tournament. Its objective is to protect them and their fans from discriminatory and abusive content on social media platforms.