UK Sport launches AI app to try and protect athletes from social media abuse

By Canadian Press on December 4, 2025.

LONDON (AP) — The British body that funds Olympic and Paralympic sports has launched an app powered by artificial intelligence to try and protect athletes from social media abuse.

The app, called Social Protect, detects and removes abusive comments on social media in real time, UK Sport said on Thursday.

The app allows “athletes to stay active in the conversation without compromising their wellbeing,” UK Sport added.

The platform works with Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Discord and YouTube, deleting comments in under a second. It draws on a database of more than two million abusive phrases across more than 100 languages.

“In the last six years, I have noticed a real increase in the abuse I’ve been receiving on social media,” three-time British badminton Olympian Kirsty Gilmour said. “Social Protect feels like a real step up in terms of the level of control I can take over my experiences online.”

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

The Associated Press