FIFA says online abuse at World Cup group stage rose 13-fold from Qatar 2022

GENEVA — FIFA said online abuse detected during the group stage of the 2026 World Cup rose 13-fold compared with the 2022 tournament in Qatar, with digital monitoring teams flagging 89,000 abusive posts across social media platforms. The body said its social media protection service scanned more than 6 million posts and comments during the group phase, a 33% increase from 2022. Eleven percent of the abusive messages identified were classified as racist, up 3 percentage points from the Qatar group stage, according to FIFA, which added that offensive posts had grown "harder and more severe." Of the 225,000 posts sent for human review, 89,000 were confirmed as abusive and roughly 1,000 accounts were referred to higher-level bodies for further investigation. FIFA also said automated moderation tools blocked about 181,000 hateful comments directed at team accounts, and that more than 100 files meeting legal criteria were passed to law enforcement authorities. The organization attributed the larger volume of analyzed content to the expanded 48-team format. Dutch players Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber and Crysencio Summerville faced online racist abuse after missing penalties in the team's elimination by Morocco, FIFA said.