• Cyberbullying is a scourge that affects all spheres of society, but high-level sport, because of sports betting, is particularly affected.
  • To fight against this, Roland-Garros is collaborating with a French start-up responsible for carrying out computer monitoring on athletes' accounts.
  • This is the first Grand Slam tournament to take such an initiative and, obviously, players appreciate the novelty.

At Roland-Garros,

"You are a scandal for tennis and women's sport", "big dog of your dead, you are a subsidy "... Whether they win or lose, it's always the same story. Since social networks have existed, and even more so with the industrial development of online betting sites, tennis players have become accustomed to receiving shovels of insults and death threats after each of their matches. Hate in its simplest device, fresh delivered on their Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts and emanating most of the time from brave anonymous of the web.

After many alarm signals sent by athletes in recent years, from Alizé Cornet to Chloé Burel via Benoît Paire or Benjamin Bonzi, the French tennis authorities have decided to act this year at Roland-Garros. How? By working in collaboration with a French start-up called "Bodyguard", "Garde du corps" in the language of Kylian Mbappé, whose goal is to carry out a permanent watch on the social networks of the actors throughout the fortnight and to automatically delete all abusive, racist, sexist messages and death threats they receive.



Gaël Monfils, racism and war in Ukraine

While going to meet the sports manager of Bodyguard, at the bend of a corridor in the very private space reserved for players, under the Philippe-Chatrier court, we stumble upon Gaël Monfils. While waiting for his taxi to arrive to take him back to the hotel, the French player, who makes his debut Tuesday night against Sebastian Baez, came to inquire about how the service works. From what we understand, it's quite simple, interested players only have to flash a QR code, download an application and tick the social networks they want to see protected, all while giving their agreement for Bodyguard to take control. "'Dirty negros', I get a lot yeah," says the Monf to Yann Guérin, the former head of communication of PSG who has since moved to Bodyguard. We take the opportunity to ask him what he thinks of the initiative, even if we already know the answer.

It's cool that there is a company that created this because we are confronted every day with negative comments that come mainly from bettors I think, they are a little frustrated, angry, and they throw horrors, he explains. If we dive into it, we go crazy, I've been doing it for a while and I have a community manager who takes care of it. I ask him from time to time to read me the funniest comments, because there are some, it's crazy, they show a real crazy imagination and they write you super beautiful texts, the problem is that it's super beautiful racist texts to the possible (laughs)! It's crazy to waste so much time pouring out so much hatred... »

Monfils takes advantage of this meeting with the Bodyguard team to talk about the number of languages that the application can monitor. His problem, insults and death threats in Russian. In a relationship with the Ukrainian player Elina Svitolina, in the persistent context of the war in Ukraine, the Frenchman is overwhelmed by attacks from bots or anonymous from Russia. "Before every game, after every game, it's hell," he said. My CM tries to delete what he can but it's complicated, he doesn't spend only good days! Yann Guérin reassures him, Russian is one of the languages analyzed by artificial intelligence, including French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or German. Eventually, AI should be able to read more than 40 different languages.

An initiative that makes its hole in Roland

Created by "a little computer genius in 2017 to fight against a societal problem in the broad sense, cyberbullying online", according to Guérin, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is trained by linguists to detect the slightest problematic message. "The technology will intercept messages sent to players and analyze them in less than 100 milliseconds to detect toxicity. She will then analyze the general meaning of the commentary, to whom it is directed, etc., he explains. Because it's not at all the same thing to write ''I'm stupid' or ''you're stupid'', it doesn't make sense at all. It will also analyze the overall context of the message. Let's take the example of the word 'peau', a perfectly banal word in all languages but which in French becomes problematic in the expression 'je vais te faire la peau', since it is a death threat. »

The task is not simple, the number 1 risk being to fall into censorship. "We do not moderate criticism, which is legitimate and legal, we moderate the way it is expressed," says Yann Guérin. The idea is to advocate freedom of expression. Freedom of expression in both directions, that of the general public and that of the players. "Today personalities censor themselves because they fear the reactions of the general public on social networks. Whereas when you can express yourself in a healthy space, you feel freer to say what you want," he continues. And obviously, the initiative seems to have its small success since the beginning of the International of France, several dozen players have already downloaded the application.

"We've been talking about the harmful side of social media for a long time now. It's good to talk about it but it's also good to do something and find solutions to it. I think it's a good idea from the FFT. This is the first initiative of this kind that has been put in place so we will see what happens. But in any case I think it's good to try to do new things, "applauds Caroline Garcia. "It doesn't take away the insults that players can receive via private messaging from their Twitter, Insta or Facebook accounts, or even SMS because it can also happen, but it moderates all public comments, which is already a very good thing. It means that on your social networks, there will be no more atrocities visible to all live, "embraces Enzo Py, coach of Lucas Pouille.

Protection during the fortnight, and after?

For Justine Henin, the godmother of the "BNP Paribas Youth Team" crossed Sunday on the terrace of the Chatrier, it was urgent to act. "Today, it's much more violent than in my time," admits the former Belgian champion. Before, it was an article in the press that displeased, criticisms that could hurt us, but we had the choice to read or not to read. Today, it is much more intrusive and much more violent. In training projects, we, trainers, must also take this into account when accompanying young people towards professionalism. We must manage to protect them as much as possible from everything that is polluting, and this kind of application is the beginning of an answer. »

Caroline Flaissier, Director of the FFT: "The mental health of players is a priority issue for us. We are therefore very proud to be the first Grand Slam tournament to offer players a solution to effectively protect themselves against cyberbullying in order to allow them to play the tournament in the best mental conditions. »

Before leaving to take his taxi, Gaël Monfils has one last question for Bodyguard employees: "Does it only work for the tournament or is it permanent?" For the moment, the initiative will only be valid for the fortnight. "The idea could be, depending on the feedback we have, and they are positive for the moment, to put this protection permanently, this is what we already do with footballers, rugby players or basketball players," reassures Yann Guérin. Just like online hate, Bodyguard has a bright future ahead of it.


  • Tennis
  • Sport
  • Roland-Garros 2023
  • Gaël Monfils
  • Cyberbullying