Since its conception in 1997, social media has slowly infiltrated many aspects of our lives. This has been accelerated by the introduction of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now known as X). These platforms provide the world with a stage where people are free to voice their opinions on any subject and with any angle of opinion. For fans of free speech, the evolution of social media has been a revelation, but free speech and opinion can also have an adverse effect on those who do not share or live up to that opinion. Sports has certainly witnessed the ugly side in that regard.

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There have been some notable examples of social media hate against a particular athlete or group of athletes, unfortunately, mainly of the racist nature, but there is optimism in the fact that athletes are getting better coaching around the use of social media, when to use it, if at all, and how to interact on it if they choose to.

When you couple social media with the increased coverage of matches and tournaments by television companies and even sports betting companies in Ontario, athletes are exposed and showcased to worldwide audiences on an unprecedented scale. For television and sports betting companies, this is a sign of increased money involved in sports nowadays. But social media will always be free and a potential danger unless policed properly.

The coaching is a positive aspect, but granting law enforcement agencies access to social media will hopefully help crack down on social media hate before it spreads too far. Severe punishments for those caught would also act as a deterrent. The ultimate step though would be to stop users from posting content at the source, and there are currently companies trying to produce algorithms to detect particular words that could be construed as hate.

Raising awareness of this hate and trying to turn more people against any of these offenders will also help marginalize the haters and drastically reduce the overall number of negative posts. The hope is that incidents such as the ones experienced by Simone Biles, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka can be stamped out completely.

The role of society will certainly help with this. Over time, society has developed in a positive way to become more tolerant, and this mentality change could be the decisive factor in improving the online world and preventing anyone from experiencing any prejudice.

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