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How AI app is protecting Olympians targeted by ‘unacceptable’ online abuse

Keely Hodgkinson won the women’s 800m at the Olympics last year (Martin Rickett/PA)
Keely Hodgkinson won the women’s 800m at the Olympics last year (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Archive)
  • UK Sport has introduced an AI-powered app, Social Protect, to shield elite British athletes from online abuse.
  • The app scans social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, detecting and automatically hiding over two million abusive keywords and phrases.
  • The contract for the service is worth over £300,000 and will be available free to athletes for four years, leading up to the LA Olympics in 2028.
  • The app does not cover X (formerly Twitter) and cannot filter abusive direct messages received in athletes' inboxes.
  • UK Sport stated that the level of online abuse faced by athletes is "unacceptable", with the app aiming to keep comment sections clean of racism, hatred, and scams.
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