Football governing body FIFA has removed thousands of hate comments made on social media since the start of the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada on 11th June.

The federation has reviewed 3.8 million posts, with 388,000 being removed. 287,000 posts and comments were deleted throughout the World Cup 2022.

“More than 250 million comments and posts were checked, including more than 30 million that were determined to be harmful,” FIFA said.

FIFA, TikTok and the City of Atlanta held an exclusive meeting of players, policy makers, technology experts and community leaders at the National Centre for Civil and Human Rights to discuss solutions to combat hate speech and celebrate the International Day for Countering Hate Speech. 

The panel discussion, which took place the night before the FIFA World Cup 2026 game between Czechia and South Africa at the Atlanta Stadium, highlighted practical steps to stop hate speech, protect the sport and keep football a unifying power for sport and society.

The event ended with a formal commitment ceremony where the panellists announced specific local actions to emphasise the need for collective and ongoing effort at all levels of the game to eradicate hate speech.