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UK Sport has offered Britain’s elite athletes access to an app that uses artificial intelligence to protect against online abuse.
The body that funds the Olympic and Paralympic Games has signed a contract worth more than £300,000 with an app maker called Social Protect.
Social Protect uses AI to scan social media posts across multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, detecting messages containing more than two million abusive keywords and phrases and automatically hiding them from an athlete’s replies or comments section.
Athletes can also personalize the offensive words the app will look for, as well as add words they want to avoid.
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UK Sports Performance Director Kate Baker said: “The level of abuse our athletes are facing online is unacceptable – doing nothing about it is not an option.
“This agreement is central to our commitment to ensuring athletes have the right support to become the best version of themselves on and off the playing field.”
The service will be available to athletes for free throughout the four-year cycle until the LA Olympics in 2028.
Shane Britton, founder of Social Protect, said: “The aim is to keep the comments section clean of racism, hatred, scams – all the horrible things that can exist on social media.”
Coaches, staff and family members of athletes will also be able to use the app’s service.
Rugby Australia has already partnered with the app to protect its players, coaches, staff and clubs from harassment, running from elite to grassroots level.