CNN; Published by Jill Martin
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Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion and 2018 French Open finalist, says racist abuse targeted toward her on social media has been a problem throughout her entire tennis career.
“It has never stopped. If anything, it’s only gotten worse,” Stephens, who is Black, told reporters after winning 6-0 6-4 in the first round of the French Open against No. 16 seed Karolina Pliskova on Monday.
Roland Garros announced last week that players will have their social media content moderated by an anti-online harassment and hate speech tool.
“I did hear about the software. I have not used it,” the 30-year-old American said.
“I have a lot of obvious keywords banned on Instagram and all of these things, 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.” Read more
