FIFA detected 7 million abusive comments during the 2026 World Cup group stage

FIFA reported that it detected 7 million abusive comments during the 2026 World Cup group stage, including a rise in racial abuse and an increased escalation to law enforcement. FIFA’s Social Media Protection Service scanned more than 6 million posts and comments during the tournament’s group phase, a 33% increase compared with the 2022 Qatar edition. Across the competition, it identified 7 million abusive comments aimed at players and staff. The monitoring operation reviewed 225,000 items manually, ultimately verifying 89,000 abusive posts requiring action, and it also automatically hid 181,000 hateful comments while processing 2,028,214 total comments, about four times the volume handled in 2022. Racial abuse accounted for 11% of the abusive content, up three percentage points from 2022. FIFA said it escalated roughly 1,000 accounts to law enforcement, contributing to more than 100 active cases, and noted that the service has removed over 30 million abusive posts across more than 50 languages since it launched ahead of the 2022 tournament. The report also links the higher volume in 2026 to expanded participation, with 48 teams versus 32.