A Queensland man has been charged for sending online abuse to a match official and his wife during last year’s Rugby World Cup, after being identified by an AI-driven security system and reported to police by the sport’s governing body.
Chief executive Alan Gilpin confirmed World Rugby is hoping for prosecution of the alleged abuser – along with others in various countries – after forwarding a dossier of evidence to Queensland police last year. The man was subsequently charged with using a carriage service to menace and harass, under Commonwealth legislation.
The identity of the culprit was unearthed after World Rugby engaged digital experts Signify Group to help monitor the social media accounts of match officials and players at the World Cup in France.
Using an AI-driven system known as “Threat Matrix”, the organisation monitored both public-facing social media, and direct messages of referees, and worked with social media platforms to remove abusive content and ban accounts.
In the event of the “most egregious cases” – in the same vein as death threats sent to leading referee Wayne Barnes and his family last year – the monitoring was also able to help identify people who had sent the messages.
World Rugby were unwilling to provide further details about the matter until the end of the court process but this masthead has learnt the case involves abuse of a referee and his wife.
Wayne Barnes in charge of the 2023 Rugby World Cup final in Paris.Credit: Getty
“Rather than just monitoring and trying to take (abuse) down, they allow the platforms that are monitoring – and with our support – to take a step further, and look at and find the actual abusers. In some cases, we are talking about actual criminal activity,” Gilpin told this masthead.
“That’s a really important message, because we want people to know: no matter what type of anonymity you are trying to hide behind on a social media handle, you can be found. If you are perpetrating effectively a hate crime, then authorities will call on you and prosecute.
“That hopefully is a message of reassurance, not only to the match officials and wider rugby community, but it is also a strong deterrent. There is an ongoing investigation so we can’t comment too much further than that, but we are expecting in coming weeks [that] there are prosecutions in Australia.”
The issue of online hate and abuse towards officials and players has escalated dramatically in rugby, with Barnes recently revealing his family had received horrific threats after games featuring contentious decisions. Barnes, who refereed the World Cup final in November, retired after the tournament and shared his experiences in a book
Nic Berry awards a penalty to the Lions during the first Test of the South Africa tour in July.Credit: Getty
“When people make threats against your wife and kids, they should be held to account and punished,” Barnes said in an interview with BBC Sport. “Threats of sexual violence, threats of saying we know where you live. It crosses that line.”
The man who served as TMO in the World Cup final, Tom Foley, subsequently stepped away from the sport due to increasing levels of online abuse and Australian referee Nic Berry was also subject to vicious online abuse after being criticised by Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus during the 2021 British and Irish Lions series.
World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin.Credit: Getty
World Rugby said more than 900 accounts were monitored at the Rugby World Cup, with in excess of 1600 abusive accounts flagged to platforms and 90 per cent removal of serious abuse.
“You look at online hate as a societal issue, and the rise of that and the prevalence of that is worrying in every walk of life,” Gilpin said.
“When you see that in rugby and see the impact it is having on players and certainly on match officials, we want to do whatever we can to support and protect them.
“Hopefully if we can get a couple of prosecutions and publicise that, it provides that strong deterrent. Let’s get away from the keyboard warriors thinking they can just criticise and make threats and say abusive things behind this cover of anonymity.”
The maximum penalty for using a carriage service to menace is five years in prison, for aggravated offences. But offenders more commonly receive fines or police cautions. Two men who pleaded guilty to online abuse of NRL star Latrell Mitchell were fined $700 in 2021.
The impact of abuse on match officials is captured in documentary about the whistleblowers at the Rugby World Cup, released by World Rugby this week.
A Signify Group release said the Threat Matrix service monitored social media platforms like X and Instagram during the World Cup, and covering 30 languages, reported abusive content daily to the platforms, expedited bans to those who’d breached community guidelines and along with potential police involvement, forwarded serious cases to national unions for potential domestic bans.
Threat Matrix is also used by major sports groups like FIFA, the NCAA, the ITP and WTA.
Leading Australian referee Angus Gardner, who officiated a World Cup semi-final, applauded World Rugby’s moves to invest in protecting his colleagues, and pursuing criminal charges for the worst offenders of online hate.
Gardner does not have a public social media presence after exiting due to abuse in 2017, but said the increasing levels of harassment had serious impacts on his refereeing teammates.
“The more times there is (sic) a proper investigation, and the more times someone gets a knock on the door, I think that will do a good job of deterring them. Some countries are doing life bans on people and that’s fantastic,” Gardner told this masthead. “If these people know they can be tracked down, and they don’t have the protection of being a faceless keyboard warrior, then people might think twice and stop. I commend World Rugby and Rugby Australia for the investment.”
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