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Olympic officials are investigating around 100,000 abusive social media messages sent to Paris 2024 athletes which include death threats against British athletes.
The shocking tally of hate levied on Olympians has been unearthed with the help of artificial intelligence.
AI has been deployed to protect the Games’ 10,500 competitors and 2,000 officials from trolls.
More than 1.5 million online posts placed on the internet since Paris 2024 began have been screened and recorded the disturbing abuse targeting Olympic competitors.
More than 97,009 posts have been flagged as abuse in 35 languages. They are being analysed to see if they should be brought to the attention of cops.
Olympic officials are investigating around 100,000 abusive social media messages sent to Paris 2024 athletes (Stock image)
. Pictured: Safe Sport Unit head Kirsty Burrows, who has also filed a complaint of cyber bullying
The Brit executive received ‘hate messages’ after speaking out in defence of controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif (pictured)
Among the British targets is the head of the International Olympic Committee’s anti-troll team who has reported the abuse.
Safe Sport Unit head Kirsty Burrows, who is charged with safeguarding competitors from abuse, has filed a complaint of cyber bullying.
The Brit executive received ‘hate messages’ after speaking out in defence of controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif who is fighting for a women’s gold despite being banned from the world championships after tests claimed she was a man.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Khelif had been the target of a `wave of transphobic hatred on the internet’.
The National Centre for Combating Online Hate has asked the police’s Brigade for Combating Crimes against the Person to investigate offences of `threatening death, public provocation to commit crimes against persons and cyber-bullying’.
According to police sources Kirsty reported `a number of messages containing threats and insults’ which she had received `via the social networking sites X and Facebook.
The culprits could face up to five years in jail and a £39,000 fine.
Ilario Corna, the International Olympic Committee’s chief information technology officer, said the Games’ AI troll police called Threat Matrix had played an important protection role.
It is triggered to root out abusive language but is so sophisticated it can differentiate between sarcasm, humour and genuine threats.
US tennis player Sloane Stephens revealed she received more than 2,000 abusive messages after one match
England footballer Jude Bellingham has also spoken out over the racist abuse he and other players receive on a regular basis
He said: ‘We have an AI-powered service to safeguard the athletes from cyber abuse.
Since the start of the Games this system has analysed over 1.5 million posts in more than 35 languages.
‘From that system already we have flagged around 97,000 potential abusive posts for review.’
A Team GB spokesman confirmed Brit Olympians had been among the victims.
‘Where we have been made aware of abusive messages we have offered support to those athletes’ he said.
`We are not aware of any that have been passed for possible prosecution at this stage.’
Online abuse has become a growing issue within elite sport with many high profile athletes calling for more to be done to protect them.
US tennis player Sloane Stephens revealed she received more than 2,000 abusive messages after one match.
England footballer Jude Bellingham has also spoken out over the racist abuse he and other players receive on a regular basis.
The English Football Association recently announced it is funding a police unit to prosecute trolls who abuse players.
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