Katie Boulter: the British tennis player reveals the violence of the social media she received
Boulter thinks that a lot of violence sent to him come from people who have put bets on his matches, since it comes after the victories as well as the defeats.
She says she has become better to move on, or just not watch her direct messages, but the impact is clear.
“Regarding death threats, it’s just not something you want to read just after an emotional loss,” she said.
“Most of the time, you get it after winning too.”
The statistics shared exclusively with the BBC Sport demonstrate the level of abuse intended for players via social media, and what is done to try to remedy it.
The figures – provided by the data science company mean, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) – show that in 2024, around 8,000 abusive, violent or threatening messages were sent publicly to 458 tennis players through their social media accounts.
According to SERIDY, a significant proportion of abuses comes from betting, which worked with the tennis authorities on the detection of abuses thanks to a detection system based on artificial intelligence called matrix threat.
More than a quarter of all abuses (26%) were targeting five players.
The most prolific account sent 263 abusive messages and 15 accounts were transferred to the police.
Nine of the 10 most prolific accounts – the majority of which were linked to angry players – were suspended or had been deleted from content.
The details of 39 account holders were shared with the tennis authorities and the betting industry for a new action.
Throughout the year, angry players sent 40% of all the abuses detected, with messages clearly linked to the activity of Paris due to the calendar or the content of the abuses.
Asked an answer, a spokesperson for the Board of Paris and Games said that its members “did not tolerate abuse on social networks, which do not take place in betting or sport”.
He added: “It is essential that social media companies take rapid measures against users and delete offensive content.”
Meta, who owns Instagram and Facebook, refused to provide a comment on the file, but has developed various tools to try to prevent people from seeing abuse – in particular hide and filter offensive or unwanted comments or the images and technology that follows and deletes abuse.
