Social media abuse in sport, special investigation: Death threats forced Jaxson Paulo to avoid own fans

Round 23, 2022 was the night everything changed for Jaxson Paulo. One poor performance, and the online abuse that followed, forced the young winger to implement extreme measures to avoid fans.

Death threats against former Rabbitohs player Jaxson Paulo last year left him so concerned for his safety, he refused to meet fans after games.

Only in the past two weeks has Paulo, now playing for Sydney Roosters, felt comfortable mingling with supporters at full-time.

At just 23, Paulo is a sobering example of just how extreme so-called fans can behave online towards athletes.

“It’s only been in the last couple of rounds playing at the Roosters that I’ve had the confidence to walk around the field and thank the fans for coming out,” he said.

“I played a few games at the back end of last season, and I didn’t want to go around and show love to the fans because you don’t know who is going to do anything, you just have to take them at face value.”

Paulo received the death threats following a poor performance, when he blew two tries and made five crucial errors as Penrith snatched a close win just weeks before the finals series began.

The threats were made on Souths’ Facebook page under anonymous accounts and while police investigated the matter, they could not track down the culprits.

After Souths turned off the comments on their post, some fans were still seething at the young winger, with ensuing comments such as:

“I remember finishing the game, and I’ve said it before, I’m my own harshest critic so I was annoyed with myself for how I played,” Paulo said.

“It wasn’t the standard I play at every week, and then everyone turned on me. It was tough.

“It got more serious when everyone was calling up to check on me, including people at the club, that’s when it started to feel bigger.

“No one is ready for it, the death threats.

“After the game, I already knew what was going to come, but I didn’t think it was going to be that bad. I went private [on Instagram] before even seeing anything, it ended up coming out that it was worse than what I thought, I was shocked by it all.

“When I went on private, there were a lot of people still tagging me on posts, so I ended up turning my phone off for the entire weekend.

Jaxson Paulo is smiling again. Picture: NRL Imagery

“I had a few people at Souths call me and ask if I was OK, I told them I hadn’t seen much but what I had seen was crazy.”

The ugly experience has led Paulo to contemplate the nature of relationships between athletes and their fans in future.

“The main thing I want to get across is that it ruins the opportunity for fans to be involved around players,” Paulo said.

“By them doing that, it makes players not want to go out and spend that extra time around the fans, especially kids that look up to these players. They’re only ruining it for everyone else.

“All the boys love going out and meeting fans, because at the end of the day they themselves used to be that kid who wanted to be an NRL player.

“One of the bonuses of what we get to do is meeting these fans, but all these comments and death threats and abuse on social media is slowly stopping that, and making players not want to do that.”

Paulo is stronger now, and highlighted the importance of a strong support network for all athletes.

“The criticism from fans has been a part of the game since the beginning, it will always be a part of the game, but it’s about putting your best support system around you, that’s what I got out of it – your family, teammates and friends will always have your back,” Paulo said.

“It’s made me have a look at whose opinion actually mattered, I used to care about the opinions of a lot of people who didn’t matter.

“I was worrying about them instead of the main people in my life, now I’m just concerned with the opinions of my family and my coaches, they’re really the only ones that matter.

“My best footy comes from confidence and that whole episode shook my confidence, made me start doubting myself. But this year the new club and [coach] Trent [Robinson] has put all that confidence back into me.”

As for how he uses social media now?

“Now it’s more about showing them who I am as more than just a footy player, showing them I’m enjoying what I’m doing,” Paulo said.

“I don’t look at my requests anymore.”

Originally published as Social media abuse in sport, special investigation: Death threats forced Jaxson Paulo to avoid own fans