NWSL

Comprehensive safeguarding for the leading U.S. womens’ soccer league

Hinge

Moderating toxic ad comments decreases
customer acquisition costs by 19%

NWSL’s proactive approach to abuse protection protects players and fans 

12.4k

Harmful comments auto-removed

812

Potential threats flagged for review

3

custom detection models built 

98%

of toxic comments accurately moderated 

19%

    reduction in customer acquisition cost on Instagram

7%

   reduction in customer acquisition cost on Facebook

OVERVIEW

Keeping players safe. Building better communities.

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.

OVERVIEW

Keeping players safe. Building better communities.

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.

Overview

Better paid ad KPIs by auto moderating toxic comments 

Social media advertising has become complex, with various factors determining the success of a campaign. Marketers frequently look at multiple variables to find the most effective strategies to maximize impact and return on investment.

This comprehensive analysis delves into the complex relationship between toxic comment moderation on social media ads and key performance indicators. The research evaluated two campaigns to measure the effect of toxic comment moderation on customer acquisition costs.

The study's findings highlight a significant correlation between active comment moderation and improved social media campaign performance across various metrics. The study concluded that social media users are more likely to click on an ad if the ad doesn't have any toxic comments; this was proved by a higher click-through rate and lower customer acquisition costs on Instagram.

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SCALE, SAFETY AND STRETCHED TEAMS

Challenge

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:

  • Sexist abuse, including transphobia and misgendering
  • Threats and hostile language that risked escalation
  • A growing volume of content across 29 official accounts, plus countless player profiles

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.

TAILORED PROTECTION AT SCALE

Solution

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:

  • Coverage across 29 accounts, for league, team, and player profiles
  • Bespoke filters tuned to each account's specific abuse patterns
  • Opt-in protection for players who wanted safeguarding on personal channels
  • 24/7 real-time moderation, removing harmful comments before they were seen
  • Threat detection and escalation in partnership with Sportradar to investigate serious risks

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.

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HINGE'S STORY

Challenge

Hinge, a global dating platform with 229k followers, runs 119 ads monthly and gets more than 6000 comments. They came to us with a big issue: nearly 60% of the comments on their ads were toxic. 

They were concerned about the detrimental effect this had on their audience, the creators they featured, and their ad spending. Patterns of toxicity ranged from racism and homophobia to more subtle, targeted insults. They wanted to ensure we could catch all types.
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COMPARISON OF CAMPAIGNS

Solution 

  • Before implementing Arwen, 60% of comments were identified as toxic, establishing a baseline for comparison.

  • Arwen's sophisticated AI, which combines both closed and open models, was deployed to actively moderate toxic, homophobic, racist, and spam content comments in real-time on Hinge’s ads.

  • After one month, we revisited Hinge’s Facebook Ads Manager to collect updated data on comment volume and toxicity levels following Arwen’s moderation.

  • We then compared Instagram and Facebook CAC before and after implementing Arwen.

“The whole team is just so excited to have this protection in place. It makes us feel like we’ve raised the bar, made the creators feel safe, and moved from a reactive approach to a proactive one. Arwen solved a massive problem around our paid ads which we've had for years; I can't believe we've only just started working with you"

elke luria
Marketing Manager North America Elke Luria

“Arwen has changed the game for us. It manages to catch specific types of hate other providers were struggling to identify before."

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Director of League Safety Olivia Wynn
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A SAFER SPACE FOR ALL

Impact

Working with Arwen delivered measurable results for the NWSL:

  • 12.4k harmful comments automatically removed before they could be seen by players or fans
  • 812 potential threats flagged for human review and investigation
  • Social teams spent less time firefighting abuse, and more time building engagement
  • Players who opted in for protection felt safer using their personal channels
  • The league showed clear action on inclusion, wellbeing and community standards

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.

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BETTER PERFORMANCE

Impact

Using Arwen, Hinge significantly improved its advertising effectiveness and brand perception. By proactively filtering toxic and harmful comments, Hinge created a safer and more positive environment for engagement on their ads. This reduced the incidence of negative interactions and fostered a more trustworthy and supportive community around the brand.

After using Arwen, the ads performed much better, leading to:  

  • 19% decrease in customer acquisition cost on Instagram
     
  • 7% decrease in customer acquisition cost on Facebook 

  • 98% of toxic comments moderated accurately 
The results of using Arwen were twofold: one measurable and the other deeply felt by the creators. All part of Arwen's mission to make social media more social.

NWSL has taken the next steps. 

Are you ready to take yours?