Por Eimi Yamamitsu
TOKYO, Aug 2 (Reuters) – Jun Mizutani, who has become the target of cyberbullying after winning Japan’s first Olympic gold medal in table tennis, said on Monday he will fight online abuse.
The 32-year-old Japanese and Mima Ito wowed the world in an epic battle in the mixed doubles final last week, narrowly defeating Chinese pair Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen.
However, amid the flood of congratulatory comments on social media, Mizutani also received death threats and verbal abuse from those who felt that he and Ito had broken the rules and that they had not played at their best.
“I think I am more immune to abuse online than others,” Mizutani said Monday after winning the men’s team match against Australia.
“But it is something that we must not allow to happen,” he added.
In a now-deleted tweet posted days after receiving the gold medal, Mizutani wrote that he had received numerous direct messages on Twitter telling him to “die.”
On Saturday, he posted a video on Twitter of lengthy and abusive direct messages sent to him from an anonymous account.
“I will contact all parties involved to take the necessary action,” Mizutani wrote, adding that he has been saving screenshots of the malicious messages.
Twitter’s rules state that it does not tolerate content that asks to harm a person or group of people, and an account may be asked to remove content or be permanently suspended from review if it is found to be primarily involved in a abusive behavior
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In June, local media reported that the Japanese Olympic Committee created a special team tasked with patrolling the social media accounts of athletes participating in the Tokyo Games to inform authorities about malicious posts online.
The Japan Metropolitan Police Department will take appropriate action if athletes submit a report, a spokesman said.
“If I leave all the online abuse that I’m getting as is, the goal will carry over to other athletes, so I feel like I need to deal with that now properly,” Mizutani said.
“I am one of the most veteran and experienced, so I want to take the lead in eliminating online slander,” he added.
Other Olympians have been harassed on social media, including 19-year-old Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto, who won the gold medal in the all-around, and 20-year-old South Korean goalkeeper An San, who became the target of online hostility in your country for your short hair.
(Edited in Spanish by Carlos Calvo Pacheco)
