Australia: Rugby fan pleads guilty to harassing match official

A magistrate in Australia has fined a rugby fan for online harassment of a match official and his family during the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The man, a New Zealand citizen living in Australia, reportedly pleaded guilty to using a “carriage service to menace, harass, or cause offence” in terms of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, and paid a $1000 fine. World Rugby has said it will also bar him from all future World Rugby events.

According to media reports, the man had sent abusive social media messages to a television match official (“TMO”) and members of his family, following England’s narrow 18-17 win over Samoa during the 2023 tournament.

World Rugby said it identified the man through its online abuse programme, which contracted a digital services company to monitor online abuse against World Cup officials and players using an AI product called Threat Matrix. After the man was identified and located, the matter was referred to local police.

World Rugby said this is the first prosecution for online hate from the 2023 World Cup, but there are other cases pending across several jurisdictions, including in New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom and South Africa. It has previously reported that it flagged more than 1600 accounts to various social media platforms for content abuses, resulting in about 90% of the most serious cases being removed.

This development reflects an increasing focus on the real-world consequences of online abuse, both on- and offline. The referee who officiated the 2023 World Cup Final announced his retirement shortly after the tournament, citing death threats, and the television match official for that game announced that he would no longer officiate international games.

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