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The FIFA World Cup quarter-finals are about to begin, and as the pressure on each team ramps up, so too has the misinformation surrounding the tournament.
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AI-generated images, false claims and fake news reports have all spread online over the past couple of weeks, many with racist overtones aimed at European teams that have already been knocked out of the competition.
For example, one TikTok video allegedly shows the Netherlands’ manager, Ronald Koeman, launching into a racist rant after Morocco knocked his team out on penalties on 30 June.
The clip amassed more than three million views and tens of thousands of shares and likes, but, it was posted by an account that clearly labels itself as an “AI football account”. The video itself also contains a tag saying it was artificially generated.
Elsewhere, posts circulated online claiming that German fans had started a petition to ban African and Muslim players from their national team after Germany was knocked out by Paraguay on 29 June, also in a penalty shootout.
The posts cite German news outlet Deutsche Welle as the source of the story, and take particular aim at Jonathan Tah, the centre-back who missed the decisive penalty that sent Germany out of the cup.
However, there is no evidence that such a petition exists, and there is no mention of it anywhere on Deutsche Welle’s platforms.
Nevertheless, fabricated reports exploiting tensions at the World Cup sit alongside genuine racist incidents that have attracted widespread condemnation.
Perhaps the most high-profile to have emerged is the spat between French football star Kylian Mbappé and Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla.
The senator sparked outrage after posting a tirade against Mbappé on X following France’s victory over Paraguay on 4 July.
She falsely claimed that he was a “colonised Cameroonian” trying to pass himself off as French. Mbappé responded that Amarilla was a “despicable woman” who did not represent Paraguay.
Paraguay’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself posted on X that it rejected Amarilla’s statements and that it was committed to human rights and the fight against racism and discrimination.
Amarilla later posted an open letter to Mbappé online, in which she partly doubled down on her attack against the footballer, but also said that she regretted insulting him and that she had deleted the post. However, as of the time of publishing, the post is still visible on her X account.
She said she was angered by his “arrogance and contempt” and that she was hurt by his “refusal to shake hands with our goalkeeper,” which occurred at the end of the tense and heated match between France and Paraguay, which saw Les Bleus win 1-0.
The game was marred by controversy due to repeated rough tackles, scuffles between players and an apparent attempt by Paraguay to scuff the penalty spot before Mbappé scored the winner. Social media users and football pundits alike branded Paraguay’s style of play as “dirty” and unsportsmanlike.
Others have also weighed in on the war of words between Mbappé and Amarilla: UN Human Rights said on X that the senator’s remarks were “despicable” and “regrettably not isolated”, and Spanish club Real Madrid, which Mbappé plays for, said it expressed its “strongest condemnation of the deplorable racist and xenophobic remarks”.
President Emmanuel Macron also posted his support for Mbappé, touting the values of “dignity, respect and fraternity” in the face of racism.
French prosecutors have since launched an investigation into aggravated public insult and incitement to hatred or violence over the matter, after the national unit for combating online hate received a complaint from the French Football Federation.
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