Abusive fans charged after online referee abuse at World Cup

On Wednesday World rugby confirmed that “successful charges and law enforcement cases were pending in multiple jurisdictions” following on from a monitoring service during the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

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Pending law enforcement cases are among the key actions and outcomes from the ground-breaking online protection service put in place to support match officials and players across men’s Rugby World Cup 2023, also delivering unique insights for World Rugby to convert into meaningful action.

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More than 900 social media accounts, including those belonging to all match officials with public-facing social accounts (including their families) and World Rugby’s official channels, were comprehensively monitored by Signify Group during the seven-week tournament held in France, the biggest service of its kind in the sport. It supported a wider promotion of the sport’s values at the showcase event.

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MULTIPLE INSIGHTS FOLLOWING 2023 WORLD CUP

The impact of the service comes as World Rugby releases the trailer for ‘Whistleblowers,’ an access-all-areas film following the match officials’ journey to and through Rugby World Cup 2023, which also highlights the scale of online abuse they faced. The ground-breaking film will launch via RugbyPass TV on 1 February.

Working in partnership with Signify Group and its artificial intelligence Threat Matrix service, the system identified, investigated and provided support relating to abuse and threat received by match officials, players, teams and officials throughout the tournament. Focusing on open-source X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram as well as private direct messaging, the system covered text, image and emoji use and operated across 35 languages and dialects.

At its core, the goal of the service was to be action-orientated. To this end, World Rugby can confirm that one individual in Australia has been charged for online abuse, cases in other jurisdictions are pending, and 1,600 social media accounts have been reported to platforms for breach of their community guidelines. In the case of more extreme abusive accounts flagged to platforms, takedown rates are running at approximately 90 percent.

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KEY FINDINGS

• Match officials, including Television Match Officials, received 49 per cent of total tournament abuse.
• Three match officials were in the top 10 most targeted individuals of the tournament while Wayne Barnes received one third of all abuse.
• Match officials were the fourth most abused ‘team’ at the tournament, surpassing the semi-finalists.
• Match officials and their families also received abuse over private direct message, which led to law enforcement intervention.
• Evidence of a clear correlation between comments (online and offline) from players and coaches triggering online and in-ground abuse of match officials.
• The geographic origin of verified abusive accounts was as follows: Europe 58%, Africa 19%, Oceania 10%, South America 3% (with abuse from non-competing regions 10%).
• Nineteen teams in total received targeted abuse on their official accounts. Two European nations were in the top three of most abused teams.
• Players were targeted with a wider variety of abuse types compared to match officials who received a much higher proportion of targeted abuse around gambling-related abuse.

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