Movement to Correct the Internet widens its web

Rebecca Sowden is okay with being introduced as the ‘Correct the Internet Lady’. Especially when the introductions are to the childhood sporting heroes who spurred her to become an international footballer.  

Over the past year, the Correct the Internet movement Sowden has championed, setting the online record straight for sportswomen by correcting biased internet searches, has cast its net wide around the world.

The campaign, with its powerful video made in Aotearoa, has reached more than a billion people. And through that, thousands have jumped on board to expose more inaccurate sporting statistics on the internet.

It’s been talked about in the UK Parliament, presented to the Women and Equalities Committee. Billie Jean King, an icon of gender equality in sport, called it her “new favourite campaign”.

And it’s now being recognised with awards, both in New Zealand and globally, for its positive impact on gender equality.

But it was while the FIFA Women’s World Cup was played in New Zealand over the winter that Sowden, a Football Fern in the mid-2000s and a vocal advocate for the marketability of women’s sport, felt the impact of the campaign personally.

“We had megastars down here, my childhood sporting heroes like [former US captain] Julie Foudy, Carla Overbeck, Aly Wagner and Mia Hamm. I was being introduced to them as the Correct the Internet Lady and everyone said, ‘I’ve seen that video and I loved it’,” she says.

“Those US players from the 1999 World Cup inspired me to go on and play soccer at the elite level.”

(Incidentally, Sowden, who played 11 matches for the Football Ferns, was presented with her debut cap last Sunday – 20 years after playing her first game for her country. She was one of around 50 Ferns who finally received their caps.)

“So it’s cool to be able to continue the legacy those US players created, and cool to be doing it from little old New Zealand,” she says. “Even though we’re down here, and we might not be the most advanced or have the biggest budgets when it comes to women’s sport, we can still create a global impact.”

And as far as Sowden’s concerned, it’s just the beginning of a movement to right some historical wrongs for world-leading sportswomen.

Sowden’s sports marketing consultancy, Team Heroine, kicked off the campaign back in January, with the endorsement of the United Nations initiative Football for the Goals and the support of other sports bodies around the world.

Here in New Zealand, advertising agency DDB Group Aotearoa and film production company Finch created the campaign – including a tool on the Correct the Internet website to help people easily report inaccurate facts to the search engines.  

Facts like ‘Which footballer has the most caps for New Zealand?’ The internet spits out All White Ivan Vicelich with 88; the statistics say Football Fern Ria Percival with 161 caps.

Although searching ‘Who’s scored the most tries in Rugby World Cup history?’ will still say Jonah Lomu and Bryan Habana with 15 tries, Habana recently corrected the fact on a rugby podcast to Black Fern Portia Woodman, who’s scored 20.

Plaudits for the campaign began rolling in straight away, but trophies are now being delivered by the barrow-load.

From this year’s coveted Cannes Lion Awards, known as the global benchmark for creative excellence, Correct the Internet brought home two awards – silver and bronze Direct Lions, for ‘targeted and response-driven creativity’. It was also shortlisted for a Glass Lion – for work addressing issues of gender inequality or prejudice.

While Sowden would’ve loved to have been on the French Riviera for those awards in June, her second son was only a month old. “I was changing nappies in the middle of the night instead of drinking cocktails,” she says.

“But it’s awesome to know a women’s sports campaign was leading the charge globally.”

Here at home, Correct the Internet was honoured twice at the national Best Design Awards – a gold pin for digital and bronze for public good.

The judges described the campaign as an “elegant solution to a complicated problem… We loved how much real work change this campaign had to the internet. The concept was so powerful, we wanted it to be extended to many other areas”.

Correct the Internet then won three Effies – New Zealand’s advertising effectiveness awards – including golds for the most effective PR/experiential campaign and for diversity, equity and inclusion.

And at Thursday night’s Pressie Awards, celebrating the best PR, experiential and social campaigns in New Zealand, the campaign is up for two more gongs, including for diversity, equity and inclusion.

“You’re not doing it for the awards, but it is nice to be recognised,” Sowden says. “It’s creating more attention for women’s sports, and also recognising the hard work of the collective behind the campaign.

“It just reinforces that in women’s sport, even though we may not always have the budgets or the resources that other big brands or men’s sports do, we can get people to take notice. We’ve just got to be bolder and bigger and more creative to create the change.”

And the public is noticing – spotting inaccuracies and doing something about it.

A great example is from the Rugby World Cup final in France a month ago. Not long after the final whistle, sportswear behemoth Nike put up a social media post congratulating the Springboks, the new world champions.

“The first rugby team in history to do it four times” they declared.

Immediately, Correct the Internet’s social sites were flooded with messages. “Everyone jumped on it and said: ‘Actually they’re the first MEN’S team to win four Rugby World Cups; the Black Ferns have done it six times’,” Sowden says.

“It was great to see the public helping maintain the momentum – and 24 hours later, Nike corrected their social media post. It takes all of us to keep it front and centre, to keep calling out brands and tech giants to make sure we’re getting the right information.

“It might not seem like a big deal, this one social media post. But it’s such a big brand and a big investor in women’s sport. And you’ve got to back up your actions and your words when you have women as a key market.”

While the Correct the Internet site originally identified around 40 facts where biased algorithms and search engines ignored female sporting achievements, the list is increasing. “People keep getting in touch with big and small statistics that are wrong. It’s really showing how widespread the problem is,” Sowden says.

She was also heartened by Google announcing a raft of changes to make it easier to search for women’s sports results, just before football’s World Cup.

And hearing Correct the Internet discussed in the UK Parliament before the Women and Equalities Committee was “one of the highlights – not just of this campaign, but probably my career,” she says.

Former professional tennis player Jo Ward told the committee: “There’s this general male bias in terms of search engines. I am now an avid participator in Correct the Internet… there’s a tool where you can actually go in and change the narrative.”

Sowden says the conversation must be had at “a policy level – be that within governments, tech companies or other organisations” to ensure the information available online is correct, and this momentum continues.

That’s where her next challenge lies. “We always said we didn’t want it to be just one-off campaign, we wanted it to be a movement, creating permanent change so women’s sport is given the visibility it deserves,” Sowden says.

“But trying to keep it front and centre all the time is no small feat. That’s where partners can come on board – the likes of UNICEF.”

Sports organisations can help by giving women’s and men’s results and statistics equal prominence on their websites. Last month, World Rugby said its World Cup tournaments would now bear the name of Women’s or Men’s “to provide clarity and consistency for fans” and give both genders equal billing.

Once the reach of Correct the Internet hit “a few million” people, Sowden says she stopped counting. DDB Aotearoa says it’s now exceeded one billion viewers.

“But it’s safe to say it’s truly gone better than we’d dreamed. There have been tens of thousands of submissions about wrong statistics, the PR value we’ve got is in the tens of millions. So in our eyes, it really couldn’t have gone any bigger,” she says.

“What’s been most surprising than any stat, though, is how many people have cared. You often hear these clichés like no one cares about women’s sport. But from the amount of support we’ve had, people do care, and they’re shocked when they find out the internet doesn’t always have the correct facts.”