‘Racism, misogyny, generalised hatred': How AI is helping rugby stamp out online abuse
A decade in rugby has toughened Caslick to social media criticism, but the 30-year-old admits the abusive messages had a profound impact on her teammates.
'After Paris, when we didn't perform how we wanted to, there were a few messages around,' Caslick said. 'Some players [were] quite sensitive to that.
'A lot of people seem to be getting fed up by anonymous trolls. Some athletes are exposed to some really nasty things online, which no one should have to go through.'
Social media has brought sports stars and their fans closer than ever, but with that accessibility has come an increasing trend of targeted abuse. Now, however, a new AI-powered app offers hope to sporting bodies and beyond in the fight against harmful trolling.
Rugby Australia has inked a deal with Social Project, which has developed technology that automatically detects then deletes abusive comments in real time before they reach the comments sections The app is now at the disposal of every player in the rugby community, from grassroots to elite levels.
It comes off the back of an internal two-month trial across 10 of RA's social media accounts, including the Wallabies, Wallaroos and Rugby Sevens, in which the software deleted more than 1500 abusive comments.
Shane Britten, founder of Social Protect, said his product draws upon a library of more than two million keywords and emojis across 100 different languages, including offensive words. Users can also add targeted words to the database which they find personally offensive.
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