Why Ben Sulayem, the FIA and F1 teams are fighting an unfair battle
General
- Ludo van Denderen
Clamping down on online hatred - mainly through social media - is one of the spearheads of the policy of Mohammed Ben Sulayem and his administration at the FIA. The motorsport federation recently published a shocking report showing an increase in insults aimed at officials and drivers. The solution? There is none as of yet, courtesy of the tech giants.
Search on X for Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen, and soon you will find a lot of swearing or insults. For some of the users on this social media platform - although Facebook or Instagram could have easily been mentioned here - it is perfectly normal to insult or taunt people they do not know personally online. Even on GPblog's Facebook page, this is apparently perfectly normal for many - which, of course, it is not -.
Noble thought from Ben Sulayem
It is a noble cause that the FIA, chairman Ben Sulayem and certainly Formula 1 teams are trying to reduce online hatred. Only: they are fighting a battle that is as unfair as it is unwinnable. In their quest, they are completely at the mercy - yes, that's the word - of companies like Meta and X. These very parties have in recent weeks scaled back their checks on user posts to appease new US President Donald Trump.
Trump in a bid to get rid of the 'woke' culture, wants everyone to be able to say what he or she wants, and a social media company should then not act as gatekeeper. In short, anything seems to be 'game' these days. More than ever. And then it becomes difficult for the FIA and F1 to tackle online hatred structurally at its roots.
Why the social media companies are not keen on pruning comments anyway? It's very simple: it interferes with their right to exist. Meta and X aim to keep consumers on their platforms for as long as possible, because that means advertising revenue.
How do you keep people there? By giving them content that makes them feel a certain way; good or bad. That doesn't happen with neutral comments, it happens with the extreme and radical ones. So Meta and X have absolutely no interest in acting against the loonies - so to speak. Until that changes, the FIA and the teams will be fighting a losing battle.
This article was written in collaboration with Norberto Mujica.
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