More Defamation Seen on Social Media during World Cup than Olympics

Tokyo, July 30 (Jiji Press)–Defamatory social media posts targeting Japanese athletes were more prevalent during the FIFA World Cup than during the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the Japanese Olympic Committee and the Japanese Paralympic Committee said Thursday. About 1 pct of posts related to this year’s FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, were classified as defamatory, the committees said in a report. Although the majority of posts were supportive, an official in charge of the report said, “It is true that negative opinions can deeply hurt athletes,” calling for countermeasures. The findings are expected to help shape measures for the Asian Games to be held this autumn in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. “We’ll create a system in which athletes can compete with peace of mind,” said Ayumi Tanimoto, a member of the JOC’s Executive Board. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]