Japan’s Meta approach to protecting athletes

Japan’s Olympic committee said on Feb 6 that it was working with tech giant Meta to monitor social media around the clock to protect athletes from online abuse at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games.

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The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) has designated six staff members in Milan and a further 16 in Tokyo to scour social media 24 hours a day, using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help detect malicious material.

The JOC said that it was partnering with both Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and Z Holdings, owner of Japanese messaging app Line, to combat online abuse.

“With the proliferation of social media, defamatory comments and malicious posts targeting athletes have become a serious social issue,” it said in a statement.

“Such behaviour not only places significant mental and physical strain on athletes, but also risks impacting their ability to perform.”

The JOC’s monitoring operation began in mid-January and Japanese media said that officials had identified roughly 2,000 potentially inappropriate posts before the Feb 6 opening ceremony.