Archive · 19 Jul 2026
7 Million Abusive Comments Detected During World Cup
During the World Cup, FIFA's special team found over 7 million mean or harmful comments on social media.
This is a lot more than they found in the last World Cup.
They checked over 500,000 messages that a computer program flagged as bad.
They told the police about more than 1,000 serious threats.
They also looked at over 53 million posts in total.
Some of the mean comments were about race.
The World Cup final is between Argentina and Spain.
FIFA's SMPS detected over 7 million abusive posts during the World Cup.
Detection rate was 14 times higher than the 2022 World Cup.
Over 500,000 AI-detected messages were reviewed, with over 1,000 threats reported to authorities.
More than 53 million posts and comments were moderated during the tournament.
Racial abuse accounted for 11% of detected offensive messages.
- Who
- FIFA's Social Media Protection Service (SMPS)
- What
- Detected and moderated abusive social media posts
- When
- During the 2023 World Cup, culminating on Sunday
- Where
- Global, with a focus on World Cup-related content
- Why
- To protect players, teams, and officials from online threats and abuse
- Total abusive posts detected
- 7 million
- Detection rate increase
- 14 times higher than 2022
- AI-detected messages reviewed
- Over 500,000
- Threats reported to authorities
- Over 1,000
- Total posts moderated
- Over 53 million
- Racial abuse percentage
- 11% of offensive messages
- World Cup final
- Argentina vs. Spain