Nov 16 (Reuters) – FIFA is launching a new service to crack down on hate speech and discrimination online during the World Cup, world soccer’s governing body said on Wednesday.<br> The Social Media Protection Service will stop players seeing abusive messages when they log on to their phones in dressing rooms minutes after matches.<br> FIFA will monitor social media accounts of all participants at the World Cup by scanning for public-facing abusive, discriminatory and threatening comments and then reporting them to social networks and law authorities.<br> “FIFA is committed to provide the best possible conditions for players to perform to the best of their abilities,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.<br> “At the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 we are happy to launch a service that will help to protect players from the damaging effects that social media posts can cause to their mental health and wellbeing.”<br> Teams, sbobet88 indonesia players and other individual participants will also be able to opt-in to a moderation service that will instantly hide abusive and offensive comments on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, preventing them from being seen by the recipient and their followers.<br> A report published by FIFA this year revealed that more than half of players at last year’s European Championship and Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) were subjected to discriminatory abuse online.<br> Brazil international Willian, who is not in his country’s World Cup squad, is backing the campaign having experienced online discrimination himself.<br> “I am supporting this campaign because I was in Brazil a year ago, and I was suffering a lot, and my family were suffering a lot because people started attacking us on social media, attacking my family,” Willian said.<br> “That’s why I’m standing now with FIFA to see if you can stop these kind of things that make me feel, sometimes, sad.” (Reporting by Peter Hall, editing by Ed Osmond)<br>