Harassment of Athletes: Anonymous Malice Tarnishes Sports

Editorial

14:00 JST, July 7, 2025

Harassment directed at athletes who are fighting with all their might to achieve victory for the team or to set records is becoming a serious problem. Heartless words are being posted on social media. The government and sports organizations must strengthen measures to protect athletes.

Professional baseball, soccer, basketball and other players are constantly being subjected to defamation and other harassment with such posts as “Kill yourself” and “Get out of Japan” on social media. Attacks on families and racially discriminatory posts are also prevalent.

Even though sports tend to spark intense support because they produce clear winners and losers, ridiculing an athlete’s character, appearance or nationality is nothing short of a desecration of sports and must not be tolerated. Those who anonymously insult others should recognize that such behavior reflects a lowliness of mind.

Malicious posts related to sports betting are also a global concern.

The International Tennis Federation and another organization analyzed comments posted on social media last year that defamed or harassed tennis players, and they found that 40% were written by individuals involved in betting. It is believed that these comments were made out of anger over losing bets.

According to a public opinion survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun, 92% of respondents said they considered defamation and harassment of athletes, sports teams and sports organizations on social media to be a serious problem.

Recently, there have been cases where athletes’ posts have provoked backlash and attracted a lot of defamatory and harassing comments. In basic terms, social media is an effective means of connecting athletes and fans. Sports organizations should thoroughly instruct athletes to avoid making careless posts that could lead to unintended criticism.

In the latest ordinary Diet session, the revised Basic Law on Sport was enacted, stipulating the responsibility of the central and local governments to address defamation and other forms of harassment. Sports organizations will also need to take similar measures.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed over 10,000 posts containing defamation and harassment in connection with the Paris Olympics last year.

The Japanese Olympic Committee is considering monitoring social media during the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics next year and promptly requesting the deletion of such posts.

If legal responsibilities are pursued, it will be necessary to obtain the poster’s information from the social media platform operator. This is a complex process that athletes would find difficult to handle on their own, making support from the government or organizations essential.

According to a survey by the Japan Sports Agency, nearly 40% of sports organizations have not implemented measures to prevent defamatory and harassing comments due to reasons such as staff shortages.

If small-scale sports organizations are not able to handle the issue on their own, they could consider collaborating with other sports organizations to jointly operate legal departments. The sports community should unite to reduce such despicable defamation and harassment.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 7, 2025)