New steps to protect riders from online abuse during Aachen World Championships
The FEI has partnered with digital intelligence company Signify to provide online monitoring for riders and officials
Steps are being taken to protect riders and officials from online abuse and harassment during the World Championships in Aachen.
The FEI has announced a safeguarding initiative, in partnership with digital intelligence company Signify Group, to provide online monitoring and threat assessment to help protect athletes, coaches, officials and other key stakeholders. This follows a successful pilot during the World Cup Finals in Forth Worth, Texas, in April.
Signify’s artificial intelligence provides real-time monitoring and content moderation across the FEI, organisers’, and riders’ social media channels. When abuse or threats are detected, they are investigated and evidence is gathered so that action can be taken by the FEI, social media platforms or, for severe cases, by law enforcement. Riders can also report abuse received via private message.
Online abuse has continued to be a growing problem across sport. It has been widely reported that athletes in football, rugby and tennis are among those to be targeted and H&H has reported cases of top-level riders and members of the racing community receiving abuse on social media.
FEI legal director Mikael Rentsch told H&H that online abuse is a “growing concern” and the FEI sees a “clear peak” around the Olympics, World Championships and European Championships. The monitoring system was adopted following discussions earlier this year between the FEI and the International Dressage Riders Club and International Jumping Riders Club on how better to protect athletes, when the “vast majority” of abuse comes from those not under FEI jurisdiction.
“Through Signify monitoring we can try to identify who is behind the comments, because that’s one of the key challenges,” said Mr Rentsch.
“We can remove abusive content from official channels – but we don’t want to censor. Constructive criticism and respectful debate remain an important part of sport and will continue to be welcomed.”
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Mr Rentsch added that the FEI will continue to monitor horse abuse matters raised on social media and investigate or open disciplinary proceedings as appropriate – but he said the organisation has to be “mindful” because images and videos can be edited or AI-generated.
Riders, officials and national federations heading to Aachen will be invited to online training sessions with the FEI and Signify around protecting themselves online.
“We are still fine-tuning the content, but we’ll cover the dos and don’ts and best practice. We want to be there to help – this is in no way to prevent athletes commenting online, it’s a service to really help them navigate through this quite ‘Wild West’ sometimes,” said Mr Rentsch.
Signify Group’s head of sport Jake Marsh told H&H that the company has helped athletes and governing bodies across sports including football, rugby and tennis. The software can detect 32 different types of abuse and threat, across 100 languages, including slang words – and it is tailored to detect sport-specific terminology.
“The monitoring picks up anything that is abusive or threatening, that’s then filtered further for severity and whether it needs to go through to investigation,” he said, adding that through intelligence and analysis of various platforms, the aim is to provide an identity or identifying details of the person carrying out the abuse to pass to law enforcement.
Mr Marsh added that they want athletes to know they will be supported.
“If they get something they are concerned about or it makes them feel uncomfortable, we want them to report it,” he said. “Once athletes know they can report it and there’s a process, they tend to start thinking, ‘Actually, I can do something about this.’”
Helen Nicholls, British Equestrian World Class performance director, told H&H it fully supports this “great initiative”.
“An online presence is part of everyday life for many athletes, and we must work to ensure their safety and mental wellbeing,” she said.
“Working with UK Sport, we have access to similar digital safeguarding resources and the athletes find it very beneficial.”
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.