NCAA urges fans, social media platforms to stop online harassment after ‘jarring findings’ in new study

The NCAA called on fans and social media platforms to fight online harassment following what the association called “jarring findings” in a study released Thursday.

The report found that abusive posts spiked during March Madness in particular, where women’s basketball players received about triple the number of threats compared to men’s players, according to the study. The report also highlighted volleyball and gymnastics championships among the events that saw concerning content.

Of the more than 5,000 posts reviewed by researchers and reported to social media platforms for abuse, discrimination or threatening content, the most prevalent type — 18 percent — was sexual abuse directed at men’s and women’s athletes.

Researchers categorized another 17 percent of abusive posts as “general” and 14 percent as “sexism.” Twelve percent of the posts were related to sports betting. Researchers also found that the prevalence of abusive posts increased as the betting markets did.

Ten percent of posts contained racist language, 9 percent were homophobic or transphobic and another 9 percent contained an abusive message that used a racist trope without directly using racist language, per the report. Another 6 percent were violent, while the remaining 5 percent were abusive posts related to ableism (2 percent), family (2 percent) and other topics.

“I’ve heard too many student-athletes talk about abusive messages they have received, and for the first time ever, we now have evidence of the scale at which this is occurring. It’s incredibly alarming and completely unacceptable,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement Thursday. “Fans have to do better, social media companies have to do more to identify and remove this content and we all need reminders about responsible social media usage.”

How the study worked

The study, released in partnership with the data and AI company Signify Group, looked at 1.3 million posts and comments that targeted more than 3,000 social media profiles belonging to athletes, coaches and officials across volleyball, football, basketball, gymnastics, softball and baseball.

Researchers then reported more than 5,000 of those posts to social media platforms because they included abusive, discriminatory or threatening messages, and used those posts to analyze data related to abusive content.

Harassment — online and in person — is a growing issue in college sports

Athletes such as LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne have spoken out about harassment. She said last year that she stopped attending in-person classes due to safety concerns.

The rise of sports betting has pushed the issue. Earlier this year, Baker said he wanted a ban on prop bets in college sports in all states, in part citing harassment faced by players. Baker has also looked into legislation that could prohibit certain people from betting if they were known to harass athletes and coaches.

The report released Thursday emphasized the potential effects of online harassment on athletes’ mental health — something players have increasingly spoken out about in recent years. In August, the NCAA began requiring schools with Division I programs to provide mental health counseling.

“Signify Group noted that repeated abuse can have an especially detrimental effect: One student-athlete received more than 1,400 abusive messages in less than two weeks,” researchers wrote in the report.

Leaders want social media platforms to do more

But that’s easier said than done. Some social media companies have rolled back content moderation in recent years while politicians fight over how best — if at all — to legislate online hate.

“The increased exposure to online gambling only exacerbates the online abuse, with many student-athletes receiving death threats via social media,” Purdue men’s basketball coach Matt Painter said in a statement about the NCAA report Thursday. “We are asking all social media companies and platforms to do more to identify and remove these online threats and make their platforms safer for everyone.”

The Athletic has reached out to X and Meta — parent company of Facebook and Instagram — for comment.

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(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)