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NEW YORK (AP) — WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced shortly before the draft Monday that the league has assembled a dedicated task force to help combat online hate and vitriol directed toward players and teams.
“We want to ensure that the WNBA remains a space where everyone -- players, fans and corporate partners -- feel safe, valued and empowered,” she said.
Engelbert said that the task force will have a four-pronged approach, including monitoring social media and other digital platforms by using advance technology to detect threats and comments. The league will also strengthen conduct standards across WNBA platforms. There will be added security measures at league and team levels, as well as dedicated mental health clinicians.
“There’s no space for hate, and I think there is just continuing drain on all of us, on players, on staff, staff on our teams,” Engelbert said. “After last year, I think we just really wanted to do something ... it was time to put this task force together and really hit it head-on, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
The commissioner said that the league has worked with team representatives as well as external groups to help the task force. Many WNBA players spoke out last season about the increased racial, homophobic and misogynistic comments on social media.
During last season's WNBA Finals, New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart said that she and her wife Marta Xargay received threatening homophobic anonymous emails after Game 1.
“It feels good to going into a league that’s not only concerned about the level of play, but also how we’re functioning as humans,” said Chicago draft pick Hailey Van Lith.
Van Lith said that at rookie orientation they showed the players an app that would help filter hateful comments. She also thought it was important to keep hateful comments off their pages so that young fans don't have to see them.
“We don't need to expose them to that,” the former TCU guard said. “That's what is most important. The next generation looking to us as inspiration, they don't need to know that's something we go through. ... It's amazing the WNBA is putting support behind it."
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