LALIGA presents M.O.O.D, a system for monitoring hate on social media

Today, LALIGA presented M.O.O.D (Monitor para la Observación del Odio en el Deporte - Monitor for the Observation of Hate in Sport), an independent tool for tracking the conversation about sport in Spain on social media. Together with Séntesis and GroupM, this new project is part of LALIGA VS Racism, and is a further step towards detecting and eradicating discrimination in football and society. 

M.O.O.D provides a weekly report which audits the level of hate and racism that takes place on social media and is related to LALIGA. It's an external tool that monitors all the platforms and displays the metrics recorded on each day. The system will generate a rating on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 representing the lowest level of detected hate, while also indicating the number of participants and the quantity of messages or conversations involved in these interactions.

Óscar Mayo, Executive Director of LALIGA, stressed: "We at LALIGA are committed to measuring hate speech related to sport on social media. It's another step in our fight to end racism, as we need to know exactly what is being said so we can take action and help tackle hatred both inside and outside of football”.

Séntisis Intelligence technology analyses language using a semantic engine with more than 50,000 linguistic rules and Artificial Intelligence algorithms, allowing messages to be identified and classified by context and language use. In studying the discourse on social media various criteria are utilised, such as the emotions of users, the different themes within hate speech such as racism, harassment or xenophobia, the volume of mentions recorded and their virality. It also performs a comparative analysis against the second half of the previous season and offers a dynamic dashboard with segregated and accumulated data, broken down by matchday, team, match, region, players and fans, as well as other metrics. All the information will be permanently available at  www.laligavsracismo.com and www.observatoriomood.com.

For the M.O.O.D project, “Séntisis served first as a mirror for the conversation about our sport, but more importantly as a detector of social trends and a catalyst for change,” said Borja González de Mendoza, CEO of the company. “We see M.O.O.D as an outstanding example of the power of data analysis, as well as being able to listen and identifying the social movements that are sweeping over us. All parties involved in the project believe that data has the power to be a catalyst for a message that impacts and influences habits and behaviour. The data is at the core of this message”. Each day, M.O.O.D will record all the hate comments detected and produce an in-depth analysis based on real-time data from the competition, with the aim of analysing trends over the course of the season.

LALIGA's social media channels will also feature this weekly analysis in short videos for all fans to see. One of the aims of this project is to raise societal awareness through the collection of racist and discriminatory comments. The LALIGA team dedicated to this project comprises a diverse, multidisciplinary group, including experts in branding, marketing, communication, and more. They will meticulously assess each situation on a case-by-case basis and decide on the necessary actions.

In the words of Ícaro Moyano, CSO of GroupM, “a project like M.O.O.D is an excellent opportunity to give added depth to LALIGA's mission and to prove the importance of sport as an driver for social transformation in our country. Few phenomena have the mobilising power of football, and while M.O.O.D will show us uncomfortable and even intolerable voices, we will also observe, detect and support the discourse that will help us achieve a more inclusive and egalitarian society”. Moyano believes that “society expects brands to take a role with in it, to take sides and make decisions to advance rights in the country. With M.O.O.D, LALIGA continues on this path of engagement with its audience”.

Another step in the fight against racism

The launch of M.O.O.D is another step in LALIGA's long-standing fight against racism. Within its current competences, LALIGA shall continue to report via its Legal, Integrity, and Security departments, all acts of racism and/or violence taking place inside and outside Spain’s professional football stadiums to the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport, as well as to the Spanish Federation’s Competition Committee, as it has done for several seasons. Similarly, LALIGA shall report and appear as plaintiff in any criminal proceedings related to violent acts that may occur within the sphere of football.

Furthermore, and with the aim of making effective progress in the eradication of this behaviour, LALIGA formally requested an amendment to Law 19/2007 of July 11, 2007 (against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport) and Law 39/2022 of December 30, 2002 (on sport) in order to have formal jurisdiction in these matters.

At this initial stage, M.O.O.D is focused on detecting racist comments, as this is currently the main problem encountered in hate speech around football, but the aim is for it to be used to analyse and fight against any intolerant behaviour.