Max Verstappen Convinces FIA to Take Big Step Against “Keyboard Warriors” as F1 Idea Gets the Green Light

Fandom and craze for a sport are great. Although, if it turns toxic and affects your beloved athletes, it should be stopped. That’s what the FIA will do with a new strategy to eliminate all forms of abuse and hate speech in the online F1 community. The FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has announced an AI technology partnership, after statements from Max Verstappen and several drivers to drive out this toxicity in F1.

Ben Sulayem put forth a complete plan of action to eradicate this persisting issue on social media and online platforms. His statement read, “We respect that people are entitled to their opinion and we encourage free speech, but an increasing number of social media posts carry an unacceptable level of vitriol.”

“Some of that has been aimed at FIA staff and volunteers. I will always stand up for my employees, officials, and volunteers. We have also heard the views of Formula 1 drivers during recent drivers’ briefings at Grand Prix weekends. They have voiced their concerns over the issue and are committed to action.”

“We must all unite to take action against abuse, harassment, and hate speech. We must combat this blight on our sport. The expertise of Arwen.ai will be a key tool in this effort. The social media platform owners also have a role to play.”

Arwen AI is an Artificial Intelligence program, specifically designed to filter out hate speech and unwanted comments on social media. Several teams have got a trial rollout of this program. As per FIA’s data, Arwen AI reduced 70% of hateful comments on Mercedes’ social media handles.

Read More: Max Verstappen Slams “Toxic” Behavior Favoring Lewis Hamilton Amid Recent Media Boycott

Ben Sulayem has concurred with Max Verstappen’s proposed solution of deploying an algorithm to reduce such hate speech and abuse. The Dutchman has been the target of many trolls on social media. Especially after his arguably controversial title battle win over Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi in 2021.

Max Verstappen’s Solution to tackle Online abuse and harassment

Over the last two seasons, Max Verstappen has been involved in several incidents on track. Especially during his titanic battle with Lewis Hamilton for the 2021 championship. Both drivers’ fan bases on social media platforms have been targeting the two world champions over the controversial ending of the epic 2021 title battle at the Yas Marina circuit.

The Red Bull prodigy has spoken against this harassment caused by social media trolls and has named them “keyboard warriors”. He believes we need to take action against this. Thus he proposed the idea of an algorithm that eliminates such online behavior.

Watch This Story: How Bubba Wallace reacted to the Crazy finish of the Verstappen-Hamiton battle in Abu Dhabi

He said, “I think it’s just the sport is more popular, so there are more people watching, so more people are writing. It’s not great that they are allowed to write these kinds of things, so I hope we can come up with a kind of algorithm that stops people from being keyboard warriors.” Max mentioned how it can be hurtful and damaging to some people working in the sport, be it team support staff, FIA volunteers, or drivers.

The use of AI algorithm by the FIA is a great initiative and we hope to see some tangible change in the online F1 community. What do you think? Will we see a reduction in online social media trolls?