FIFA reports 13-fold rise in racist online abuse during World Cup group stage

FIFA's social media protection service identified 89,000 abusive posts across the group stage of the 2026 World Cup. The figure represents a 13-fold increase from the 6,700 abusive comments recorded during the 2022 tournament, though the number of matches rose from 48 to 72.

Racism accounted for 11 percent of all online abuse, a 3-percentage-point increase from four years earlier. The service also reported a significant rise in the most offensive material, with more than 100 examples meeting legal thresholds for case-file preparation.

Detection and response More than six million posts and comments were scanned during the group stage, a 33 percent increase from 2022. Of those, 225,000 were flagged for human review, leading to roughly 1,000 accounts identified for further investigation and 181,000 hateful comments hidden.