First-Ever Index To Benchmark Digital Harms In Sport Launched, Showing How Online Abuse In NZ Mirrors Global Trends

Areto Labs, an international leader in AI-based automated content moderation for sports, media, content creators and public figures, has released the Areto Hate Speech Index — the world’s first global benchmark to quantify online abuse across sports. The Index builds on Areto’s work since 2018 to develop AI that actively reduces online harms, fraud and digital piracy, while protecting public participation across society.

The first Index analysis reveals a 58% year-over-year increase in hate speech from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025. Among the most alarming trends:

• Sexism and transphobia have seen sharp increases (220% YOY and 133% YOY respectively)
• Women’s sports consistently attract higher levels of abuse than men’s (67% increase YOY vs 46% increase YOY respectively).
• Racism saw a sharp rise through Q4 2024, peaking at 228, and can be attributed to heightened international engagement around the India vs Australia cricket series and the passions stirred by betting-related discussions, further fueled by intense fandom.

Hate speech in sport isn’t just rising — it’s reacting.
The Areto Index captures both the steady growth of abuse linked to broader societal shifts, and the sharp surges that follow a missed call, a game-winning goal or a moment that becomes political. “We’re seeing two truths at once,” says New Zealand-based Areto Labs Founder and Chief Product Officer Jacqueline Comer. “Online hate is steadily rising across the board — especially around gender and identity — and it also spikes fast and unexpectedly. That makes real-time awareness essential. But beyond the immediate harm, abuse now threatens the long-term value of digital assets — from player marketability to brand partnerships and even rights valuations. Doing nothing isn’t just risky anymore — it’s financially unsustainable. The Index gives us the big picture and the early warning system.”

"We created the Areto Hate Speech Index as a way to shift the conversation from reacting to individual harms to understanding the systemic patterns behind them, and show clearly: this is what digital harm in sport really looks like,” continues Areto Founder and COO Kasey Machin. "For years, we’ve been working with the world’s top researchers, rights holders and organisations to fight online harm in real time. But we’ve also known the problem needed a wider lens. The Index is our way of saying: here’s the data, here’s the standard–let’s raise the bar together."

Modeled after a stock or consumer confidence index, the Areto Index measures the percentage of abusive comments relative to overall engagement on social media channels. Powered by Areto’s proprietary AI hate speech analysis and moderation software, which processes millions of data points in over 50 languages, the Index draws on data from 44 major sports leagues, clubs and ecosystems that attract global followings, across the US, Canada, the European Union and the UK, Australia, New Zealand, creating a global benchmark for online harm.

The Index tracks both hate speech and abusive content that creates unsafe or hostile environments, often driving fans and brands, creators, athletes and public figures to disengage from digital communities entirely. The Index provides a first-of-its-kind view into how hate speech is evolving across social media platforms.

“The Index serves as a pulse check on the internet, showing us how global events ripple through online spaces and trigger similar reactions everywhere,” explains Comer. “For example, during the Paris 2024 Olympics, the visibility of drag queens in the Opening Ceremony sparked a wave of transphobia and homophobia online — not just in France, but here in New Zealand, too. It’s a stark reminder that the patterns of hate and division that play out globally inevitably show up in our own backyard. What happens online elsewhere doesn’t stay there, and no community is immune from these wider societal shifts. The patterns we track in the Index help us understand and respond to these growing divides.”

The Areto Hate Speech Index will be updated and shared quarterly and is available publicly. Areto is also offering free trial access to its content moderation software for organizations and individuals wanting to deploy their own AI agent to protect themselves and audiences from digital harm.

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