“Through the Fifa social media protection service (SMPS) and by deploying advanced technology and human expertise, Fifa is taking decisive action to protect players, coaches, teams, and match officials from the serious harm that online abuse causes.”
Fifa set up the SMPS in 2022 with players’ union Fifpro to monitor, report and block abusive content.
Fifa was criticised after it appeared to drop anti-racism messaging at the Club World Cup, which was held in the US this summer, but SMPS was used.
A Fifa statement read: “During the tournament SMPS monitored 2,401 active accounts across five social media platforms covering players, coaches, teams and match officials participating at the groundbreaking tournament, with 5.9m posts analysed, 179,517 flagged for review and 20,587 reported to the relevant platforms.”
Infantino said: “Our message is clear: abuse has no place in our game, and we will continue to work with our member associations, the confederations and law enforcement authorities to hold offenders accountable.
“This behaviour has no place in football or in society and Fifa is taking all possible steps by reporting these incidents and also by blacklisting individuals from purchasing tickets for Fifa tournaments.”
Fifa said more than 65,000 abusive posts have been reported to social media platforms since the SMPS was created.
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