Case study
National Women's Soccer League
Helped the NWSL tackle rising abuse across its 14 teams, 29 social media accounts and hundreds of players. With over 40,000 comments a month, many using sexist, transphobic and misgendering language, social teams were overwhelmed. Platforms were pulling back on moderation. The risk fell to the league to do better.
12.4k
harmful comments auto-removed
812
potential threats flagged for review
3
custom detection models built
Overview
NWSL's proactive approach to abuse protection protects players and fans.
Social media helps pro sports grow the game, engage fans and showcase talent. But the same platforms can also expose players to harmful abuse, damaging trust with supporters and affecting athlete wellbeing.
This case study shows how the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) partnered with Arwen to take action. The league was facing a rising tide of targeted hate, including sexist abuse, misgendering and transphobia, often directed at individual players.
With Arwen's tailored AI moderation and threat detection in place, the NWSL reduced visible abuse, protected its players and created a safer space for fans and teams to connect.
The NWSL is the top tier of women's professional football in the United States, with more than 4.6 million followers across its social media channels. Each month, league, team and player accounts received over 40,000 comments. While most comments were supportive, the league faced a persistent problem with:
At the same time, major platforms had reduced their own moderation efforts. That meant more hate stayed online for longer, and harmful comments were less likely to be taken down. The burden to protect players fell to the league. The NWSL needed a faster, more reliable way to reduce harm, protect its people and uphold community standards - without burning out its social teams.
Arwen partnered with the NWSL to build a custom moderation system that reflected the league's values and realities. The setup was designed to protect players, reduce visible harm and ease the pressure on internal teams. Key features included:
This approach kept harmful content out of view, even as platforms reduced their own moderation. Players could choose the level of protection they wanted. And social teams finally had a scalable way to manage risk, without having to read every comment.
Working with Arwen delivered measurable results for the NWSL:
By taking a proactive approach, the NWSL protected its players, reduced visible harm and created a safer space for fans to connect, supporting its mission to grow the women's game with care and integrity.
Arwen has changed the game for us. It manages to catch specific types of hate other providers were struggling to identify before.
See how Arwen helps teams protect performance, spot opportunity, and act in real time, without adding complexity.