In many cases, people don’t realize their posts are insulting because they assume athletes accept criticism as part of being a pro.

Did this professor only just discover the wonderful world of social media?

Glass Jaws abound.

I'm often shocked and depressed by online comments and fully agree that many are insulting, racist etc. However, many people now seem to believe that legitimate criticism is bullying or offensive. This isn't just online - recently I witnessed a shop manager, rather gently and patiently I thought, explaining to a junior employee what they were doing wrong with some procedure. This was followed by a complete meltdown about bullying and feeling threatened. Meanwhile customers are left standing without any service or attempt to sort out the mess created by the incompetent employee.

good that things are changing, now people (and sites, services) are being made responsible for the harassment.

Since basically most of the comments, if not all, were from Japanese users, proves again that bullying, especially bullying hidden under anonymous Twitter, Threads or similar accounts is way more strong and callous in Japan, compared to the rest of the world, which usually send mostly positive thoughts to their own athletes.

Sadly, this can be seen here, where most of the comments, such as this, are also down voted.

30 years of online pseudonyms has turned masses of otherwise normal people into raging sociopaths.

one standard deviation (16.7%) of people have an iq so low, they are unable to function in society. the next deviation are still below the median iq.

and all have a phone to put their ignorance and stupidity on display.

people with median or above iq who were adults before the internet and social media were rarely exposed to them. seeing how many stupid people there are out there is draining optimism from society.

The moment anyone obtains any sort of fame, their social media is usually locked down to personal friends only. If they have an official account, it tends to be operated by an agent. A small percentage of people are unpleasant and it's a very big planet. If you invented a cure for cancer, you would get abuse from someone, somewhere. Just do the sensible thing: lock down your personal social media and ignore random comments from people you don't know. It's not difficult. The options are there.

That some people are abusive is not an excuse for mass/state censorship of the net. Punishing everyone for the deeds of a few in unfair and abusive.

DanteKH You're talking nonsense! it isn't exclusively in Japan that athletes are harassed online. Many competitors this year have suffered abuse such as the gymnast Jordan Chiles and the Algerian boxer Iman Khelif.

Nah, I think it's just because they assume no one will ever really know or care about who made the post. 99% would never say it to the athletes' faces.