ICC trials AI tool to combat social media abuse in women’s cricket

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has completed a significant trial of a new AI tool aimed at reducing social media abuse in women's cricket. The trial took place during the recent Women's T20 World Cup in the UAE and found that nearly 20% of comments on players' and teams' social media pages were either harmful or generated by bots.

The ICC partnered with tech company GoBubble to implement this tool, which analyzed over 1.4 million comments across 60 player accounts and eight team accounts. Out of these, more than 271,000 comments contained various forms of abuse, including racism, sexism, and homophobia.

All participating accounts opted into this program, reflecting the ICC's commitment to creating a safer environment for players, especially as interest in women's cricket continues to grow. Earlier reports highlighted the severe online abuse faced by female players, emphasizing the need for protective measures.

Finn Bradshaw, the ICC's Head of Digital, stated, "One of the objectives of the ICC is to look at ways in which we can inspire as many women and girls to play cricket as possible." He added that negative online experiences could discourage young girls from pursuing cricket, stressing the importance of mental health and a supportive environment.

The GoBubble app works by detecting abusive language in various languages and can be customized for individual players or teams. It also identifies and removes comments from bots that promote unrelated content. This tool not only cleans up social media interactions but enhances the overall experience for fans as well.

South African wicketkeeper Sinalo Jafta, a prominent advocate for this initiative, shared her personal experiences with online abuse. Previously, she relied on friends or family to filter her comments. Now, with the AI tool, she believes players will feel more comfortable sharing their lives on social media. "That protection for me is very big because players get to share their life with the world without the fear of being judged or criticized," she expressed.

The ICC aims to encourage positive interactions on social media to inspire the next generation of cricket players. Currently, women players can enroll in this service until the end of 2025, with plans to eventually extend it to male players as well.

Bradshaw concluded, "We wanted to do a trial and to see how it goes and we will produce a report. Then we'll see if there's demand for this from the male players."