Chicago Sky Uses AI to Block Hateful Posts from Reaching Player’s Feeds

The WNBA’s Chicago Sky is advancing its year-three initiative in support of players’ mental health with a campaign from partners BarkleyOKRP and Putney that enables players and others to block negative social posts. The new campaign, “Block the Negativity, Post Up Positivity,” was inspired by the majority of female athletes having experienced some form of online harm that poses a direct threat to their mental health.

The centrepiece of this campaign is an app that lives on The Chicago Sky players’ phones. The app, now in beta testing, uses AI to identify negative posts in players' social feeds and blocks them. The app will be available to Chicago Sky players this week and then to the public later in the year. In addition to keeping negative posts from showing up, the campaign encourages fans to flood social feeds with positive messages.

“The mental health of female athletes is heavily affected by social media comments, and with more eyes on the WNBA, it’s only gotten more challenging,” explained Tania Haladner, CMO of the Chicago Sky. “I’m so proud of our players who are lending their voices to support this initiative and help demonstrate that supporting mental health awareness is a priority that requires teamwork.”

The campaign for the initiative features Chicago Sky players, Angel Reese, Chennedy Carter, Isabelle Harrison, and Brianna Turner – all of whom are confronted with mean and unpleasant social comments that surround them on the basketball court – and which they forcefully shatter while shooting, passing and running plays. Chicago Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon makes an appearance to encourage her players. The Angel C. Reese Foundation and Mesirow Financial are partners of the program. 

The advertising includes a series of online videos, social posts, in-arena activations, a website and merch featuring headbands with positive affirmations from the players themselves. The videos were produced by Miniac and directed by Cristopher Pina. 

“Block the Negativity, Post up Positivity,’ premiers at the Chicago Sky home game on August 15. Preceding the game will be an in-stadium panel discussion around the intersections of social media, female athletes and mental health outcomes. Moderating the panel is Lily Rocha, associate VP of policy at NAMI Chicago. On the panel will be Sheryl Swoopes, Former WNBA legend, Dr. Ndidi Onyejiaka (Dr. O), Chicago Sky’s Team Psychiatrist, and Cari Roccaro of the Chicago Red Stars. 

This campaign represents an evolution of ‘The Net,’ a program now in its third year that was created by BarkleyOKRP in partnership with the Chicago Sky. The ‘Net’ was designed to provide a network of mental health support for women in sport, encourage others to find their community in managing mental wellness and with this year’s program, to bring ‘The Net’ to more people beyond the Chicago Sky.

“We want to expand the possibilities of how “The Net’ can support female athletes and by adding a tech component fueled by AI, we are helping players decide which social media messages they see,” explained Betsy Ross, EVP head of client experience at BarkleyOKRP. “Importantly, we are also working to flood players’ feeds with positive messages. We think this initiative has great potential for women in sport across and even beyond the WNBA.”