Montenegrin professional tennis player Danka Kovinic recently shared disturbing screenshots of vile and abusive messages she received on social media after losing a match. The messages were filled with insults, profanity, and threats aimed at the athlete, including one that urged her to commit suicide.
The screenshots shared by Kovinic on her Twitter profile show messages from several different users, written in various languages, revealing that online abuse and bullying are spread worldwide.
Sve neki fini ljudi oko nas‼️🤯
Srećom, jedan tvit podržava samo 4 slike, a vi birajte koji vam je jezik najmiliji 🤔🙈
Ne znam treba li da vam se izvinim što nisam ‘potamnila’ ove pogrdne riječi, ali to je to, realnost! pic.twitter.com/eHnOLw4d1j
— Danka Kovinić (@DankaKovinic) April 13, 2023
One of the messages reads: “Jump off the bridge and make so many people happy, you sl**.” Another one translates to: “When I find you in Belgrade, I will cut both of your arms off, you sl**” You can read the rest in Kovinic’s screenshots, but the sad reality is that what she has shared is just a small portion of online abuse WTA players face daily.
The 28-year-old Kovinic, who is currently ranked 73rd in the world, recognizes the importance of not letting the threats emotionally disturb her and laughs them off, but it is concerning to see the scale of online abuse professional athletes are exposed to all the time. The messages she received are truly dreadful and it is mind-boggling to think that bullies are everywhere around us.
why did she crop out the usernames? doesn’t make sense.
am I to believe she didn’t write these herself for exactly this reason; attention and clout.
Jacob, you don’t believe her? I am 100% convinced that she is telling the truth. The threats are most probably coming from fake/anonymous accounts, so usernames don’t really mean anything.