A Round-Up of Campaigns Against Online Hate, Sexist Abuse, Inequality & more in Sports!
Let’s start with a quick history lesson. The documented history of sports goes back at least 3,000 years, with the first Olympics Games happening in 776 BC. Ever since then, there is no doubt that sports has been a vital enabler of unity to bring people together across cultures and boundaries, promoting peace, tolerance and understanding, not to mention its physical and mental benefits in the busy rhythms of our lives. Nevertheless, there is an ugly side of sports that players, teams, coaches, referees, fans and families face. Over the years, there has been a significant rise in online hate, misogynistic and sexist abuse, gender inequality and racism in sports.
Many sponsors, organizations and teams have announced their attempts to clamp down on these issues. Recently, the beginning of the Women Euros 2022 tournament has been a great success to promote gender equality in football and to raise questions against sexist hate. If you want to keep your hopes high, here is a list of 6 great campaigns against online hate, sexist abuse, inequality and more.
Fulham Football Club’s Partnership with Her Game Too
HerGameToo is a non-profit organization founded by 12 female football fans committed to raise awareness and fight against sexism in football. Their work includes building a more welcoming environment for young girls and women, alongside campaigns against online abuse.
Fulham FC, as a part of their partnership with Her Game Too, launched their “Fulham For All” campaign last year to bring attention towards equality and diversity.
In a recent chat between Amelia Armstrong (Fulham FC’s HerGameToo ambassador) and Tim Ream (Fulham FC defender), the football player emphasized on how most of the players of the team faced anonymous online hate and the importance of having these conversations out loud to push things forward. Watch the interview here.
Read More: FULHAM PARTNERS WITH HER GAME TOO
2. F1 Launches “Drive It Out” Campaign to Combat Fan and Online Abuse
Formula 1 recently launched a campaign called ‘Drive It Out’ in response to increasing incidents of online abuse at championships. The ‘Drive It Out’ campaign is led by a video featuring all 20 drivers who are asking their community to challenge the behaviour of online abuse by saying,
“F1 is all about competition and rivalry, but also respect. Respect as competitors, respect for our fans, respect for the whole F1 family. Abuse of any kind is unacceptable. If you cannot be respectful then don’t be part of our sport”.
While F1 is stating that they won’t allow abuse in their races, they also called on social media platforms to tackle online abuse head-on and encouraged people to immediately block and report offenders.
Read More: F1 Community Launches ‘Drive It Out’ Campaign
3. UEFA Takes Action to Tackle Online Abuse with #RealScars Campaign
UEFA launched #RealScars, a campaign announced as a part of their ‘Respect’ programme’ to highlight the negative effects of online abuse directed at football players, coaches, and officials across social media.
Additionally, to ensure that harmful content is removed, UEFA is working directly with major social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
Read More: Real Scars: UEFA takes action to tackle online abuse
4. EE kicks off “Hope United” Campaign to Tackle Online Sexism
EE’s Hope United Squad is a collective of footballers committed to combating online sexist hate, especially during this summer’s UEFA Women's European Championships. The aim of this campaign is to teach audiences the digital skills required to prevent, report and stamp down on online sexism.
The campaign is also hoping to raise awareness of gender equality in sports with their campaign tagline, ‘Not Her Problem’ designed to remind the audience that men should play in preventing online hate as well. Here is the video of the campaign.
Read More: Sexist Hate Is Not Her Problem
5. Volkswagen’s Campaign Says It All: Women Play Football. #NotWomensFootbal
When UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 kicked off in June, Volkswagen showed its support by launching a campaign to increase gender equality. While their tagline, #NotWomensFootbal, focuses on reminding people of the equal opportunities everyone should have, they are also aiming to trigger a discussion around just how much women contribute to sport all around the world.
Imelda Labbé, the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars, makes a great point by saying that, “Our campaign is a wake-up call to raise awareness and encourage people to question how they use language. It is language that shapes the ways in which people think about the world,”.
Read more: #NotWomensFootball: Volkswagen launches a provocative campaign
6. See Her Greatness: Buick celebrates the achievements of all athletes
Buick’s “See Her Greatness” campaign acknowledges the problem of lack of media coverage women athletes are getting compared to men athletes, hence, hopes to raise awareness on the topic. By encouraging viewership, supporting initiatives that drive equity, and creating platforms for women to have meaningful conversations, the campaign helps increase women’s visibility in sports.
Read more: Buick See Her Greatness
As Areto Labs, our duty is to protect your sports team and brand from cruelty & abuse by tracking, moderating and counteracting sexist, racist & hateful comments on your social media. Schedule a demo with us today and see how we ARETO can help you change the discourse of abusive conversations online!