French Open: Competing players to be offered protection against online harassment

French Open organizers are giving all players access to an online tool meant to protect m from cyberbullying and harassment on social media. French tennis federation said Monday techlogy developed by a French company will be made available to all players taking part in this year's clay-court Grand Slam tournament. software uses artificial intelligence to filter comments posted to social media accounts and block those that are deemed toxic or abusive.

It said tool "aims to preserve players, ir mental health, values of sport and tennis and to banish people who come to spread ir aggression and hatred on social networks.”

“Tennis being one of sports most affected by this scourge, athletes can thus be victims in a direct or indirect way,” federation added. Players and tennis officials can opt to connect ir social networks to techlogy, developed by Bodyguard.ai company, before tournament and keep it in place for at least one week after it ends. Play in main draw begins May 28 at Roland Garros.

“This way, y won’t receive any derogatory comments,” French federation said. “It is an AI that performs moderation in real time. comment is analyzed in less than 200 milliseconds. A team of linguists creates word structures to update techlogy in real time from what is posted on social networks to generate a contextual analysis. goal is to ensure that thing is missed, while making sure that thing is censored.”

different platforms monitored are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Discord.

“ mental health of players is a priority issue for French Open," French federation director Caroline Flaissier said. “re is place for any form of violence in our tournament.”