Particularly exposed to online hatred, the Esport sector is trying to fight the scourge of the cyberbullying, such as the French Club Vitality, which recently has a tool destined to protect its players thanks to artificial intelligence.
“This is one of the great challenges of electronic sports (video game competitions, note) because we have an exhibition in negativity or toxicity a little more important than other disciplines,” explains Fabien “Neo” Devid, the head of vitality.
A virtual world, very real insults
In essence, players or coaches of eSport live in the virtual world, where they are in direct contact with particularly passionate fans. They have regularly directed and are overwhelmed with hate messages, insults or even death threats.
“Unfortunately, it exists. It is not our daily lot, but during the counter-reflection or the playing facts, it can happen,” says Fabien Devide.
A few months ago, the player “Zywoo”, a great star of the club and the counterprojector of video games, was, therefore, victim of a “digital incursion” after an action on an opponent during a match. At the beginning of the year, “Zen”, World Rocket League champion in 2023, had also suffered an avalanche of insults and threats due to the performance of his team.
“This can have consequences that can lead to feelings of isolation, exhaustion, and is increasingly difficult to drive for young players,” said the chief of vitality.
With Bodyguard, a real -time online moderation application also used by traditional sports players, the Parisian club, therefore, wanted to publish a report on online hatred to “alert” the situation in electronic sports, a few days of World Mental Health Day on Friday.
“The extension of themselves”
According to the results of this study, 4.2% of online messages related to eSport include hate content. It is more than football (3%), a sport that unleashes the passions and awakens many excesses.
Since August 1, vitality has been associated with the bodyguards to filter messages from its social networks, an association presented as the first in the electronic sports sector. The tool allows, using artificial intelligence models, automatically hide the malicious comments published in the club’s publications.
Nineteen vitality officials are protected. Result: of more than 57,000 messages analyzed, more than 2,000 have been blocked, mainly in the X and Instagram accounts of the club.
“Bodyguard protects players automatically analyzing the messages received on their social networks and eliminating those who are toxic in real time,” explains his co -founder Charles Cohen.
“This directly reduces the exposure of players on hatred online. It is a real support for their mental health and performance, because this content has a personal and immediate impact.”
For Fabien Devide, clubs as structures also have a role to play in the protection of their players.
“Today, Digital is an integral part of a person’s identity, and especially a teenager,” he said. “Social networks are an extension of themselves, they are part of their daily life and their way of consuming means and entertainment, or even their way of building as an individual. Therefore, this requires a lot of surveillance on our side.”
Source: BFM TV
