JOC Vows Action against Social Media Abuse of Athletes

Milan, Feb. 2 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese Olympic Committee has been leading efforts to protect athletes and staff from social media abuse, as attention on individual sports and athletes tends to rapidly surge during the Olympics and Paralympics. During the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, which will officially start on Friday, the JOC and the Japanese Paralympic Committee will monitor abusive social media posts around the clock from bases in Japan and in Milan, Italy. “We’ve established a system for swiftly requesting that (abusive) posts be taken down and providing support for athletes,” Hidehito Ito, who heads Japan’s delegation for the upcoming event, said at a press conference in Milan on Monday. Last year, the JOC and the JPC announced that they would use artificial intelligence to track such social media posts. In a social media screening conducted during the 2025 World Athletics Championships held in Tokyo last September, about 500 posts were found to be defamatory, leading to deletion requests for about 230. The majority of such posts were either derogatory, discriminatory or sexist. “There are some gray-area (posts) that are not enough to warrant a takedown request,” a JOC official said. “In reality, there are many more social media posts that may hurt athletes (than people think).” The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics was marred by a gender controversy in women’s boxing, resulting in a boxer facing social media abuse. According to the International Olympic Committee, over 10,200 social media posts were recognized as abusive toward competing athletes and staff during the Paris Games. For the upcoming Winter Games, an official of a monitoring team said, “It’s extremely important that we take action in a timely way.” “I think it’s meaningful that we’ve managed to come up with measures (to tackle online abuse) by understanding relevant trends through efforts made during the Tokyo World Athletics Championships and other events.” While public recognition of online abuse has deepened, the JOC is limited to asking social media operators to take down such posts. On ways to boost deterrence against online abuse, JOC Executive Board Member Ayumi Tanimoto, an Olympic gold medalist in women’s judo, said that barbed comments tend to increase on social media immediately after the end of a tournament. Saying that specialists providing in-depth commentary and sports organizations offering more information would help prevent abusive comments, Tanimoto added, “There are cases in which people can understand a decision that may be perceived as dubious if the judgment is explained to them.” “We hope that relevant parties work together with others to send out information that protects athletes,” she said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]