Key Points
- US Tennis player Sloane Stephens says online racism has been a problem her entire career.
- She said it's gotten worse and has reached a worrying level.
- The French Open has introduced AI software blocking racist keywords on social media.
American Sloane Stephens has said online racist abuse of players has got worse, following her victory over Karolina Pliskova at Roland Garros.
Sloane Stephens, runner-up at Roland Garros in 2018, dismantled former world No.1 and No.16 seed Karolina Pliskova 6-0 6-4.
But although everything went smoothly on the court for the American, she said racist abuse of players had got worse.
"Yes, it's obviously been a problem my entire career," said Stephens, who is Black. "It has never stopped. If anything, it's only gotten worse."
She did not go into specific details but said even software such as the one available for players at the French Open, which is designed to block racist comments, could not stop it.
"I did hear about the software. I have not used it," Stephens, 30, said.
"I have a lot of obviously keywords banned on Instagram, but that doesn't stop someone from just typing in an asterisk or typing it in a different way, which obviously software most of the time doesn't catch."
The software provided by organisers for the first time is able to identify and remove racist and other forms of hate speech, and the French Tennis Federation has made it available to all players at the tournament.
Using artificial intelligence, the software filters out abusive comments on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Stephens said the racism had reached a worrying level.
"When there is FBI investigations going on with what people are saying to you online, it's very serious," she said.
"People online have the free rein to say and do whatever they want behind fake pages, which is obviously very troublesome.
"It's something I have had to deal with my whole career and something I will continue to deal with, I'm sure. That's that."
