A month after launching a social media moderation programme to address online abuse, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has reportedly completed the trial of an artificial intelligence tool that filters out cyber bullying. (More Cricket News)
The programme, which was conducted through the recently concluded Women's T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, found that nearly 20 per cent of the comments made on player or team social media pages are either harmful or generated by bots, according to an ESPNcricinfo report.
The report adds that ICC used an AI tool devised by tech company GoBubble for the cause, analysing as many as 14,95,149 social media comments across 60 player and eight team accounts and 2,71,100 of them included racism, sexism, homophobia and other kinds of abuse.
Further, the accounts that were monitored were from players or teams who volunteered for the service, which offered by the global cricket body as a way of making the game safer for players amid rising attention on women's cricket.
"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," the report quoted Finn Bradshaw, ICC's digital head as saying. "We heard the stories from a lot of women and girls, unfortunately, once they become a bit more public, the abuse that they get online can be really inhibiting.
"The last thing you want is a teenage girl who's got some talent and ability and then she sees what one of her heroes goes through on social media and thinks, 'I can't face that'. We know mental health is such a big thing across the world and social media can be terrible for mental health and so anything we can do to make that girl's decision to play cricket easier, we want to do that," Bradshaw added.
South Africa wicketkeeper-batter Sinalo Jafta had earlier revealed her struggles with online abuse and has been the face of ICC's initiative. Before the service was launched, Jafta used to enlist the help of friends and family members to go through her social media accounts and delete any abusive messages.
But with the AI tool, she hopes to be safer online. “There is nothing worse than opening up your phone after a loss - or after a victory - and regardless of what side you find yourself there is always some degrading comment about your personality.
“With the youngsters coming in you tell them 'please don't look', but what are they going to do? It is literally their thing.
“That protection for me is very big because players get to share their life with the world without the fear of being judged or criticised. I am looking forward to seeing the changes, people just being free and players can just show the world who they really are,” Jafta said in an ICC media release.
What Is GoBubble App And How It Works
With the aim to eliminate social media abuse, the GoBubble app works in two ways, the report states. The app can pick up words which are abusive, both in English and other languages, and be customized for specific players or teams. It can also scan for bots who are sharing unrelated content on pages.
"There's a whole range of words: swear words, slurs or insults but the best part about this software is that you can individualise it. If, for example, a player has had an unfortunate incident that's specific to them in the past and people keep bringing it up, we can then make sure that those comments are hidden for them as well," the report quoted Bradshaw as saying.
Women cricketers can sign up for the service until the end of 2025, the report adds, stating that ICC is considering making it available for male players too. "We wanted to do a trial and to see how it goes and we will produce a report," Bradshaw said. "Then we'll see if there's demand for this from the male players."
