by Didi Rankovic, Reclaim The Net:
UK Sport is planning to roll out an artificial intelligence system to monitor, flag, and remove online content it deems abusive toward British Olympians and Paralympians. The move, framed as a way to protect athletes from online harassment, raises serious concerns about government-backed surveillance, online censorship, and the broader implications for free speech.
The government agency, which oversees elite athlete development through its World Class Programme (WCP), has put out a call for AI-driven technology that will operate “always on,” scanning social media and other platforms for perceived threats or abuse.
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According to procurement documents, this system will not only remove content but also escalate certain cases to law enforcement. The program will apply to around 1,100 athletes and 100 staff members involved in the WCP, a taxpayer-funded scheme that distributes millions of pounds in National Lottery money to support elite sports.
While the stated goal is to curb online abuse, the use of AI to monitor speech on a mass scale sets a dangerous precedent. Automated systems have a long history of misinterpreting context, flagging legitimate criticism as “abuse,” and enabling overreach in content moderation. What begins as a tool to filter out genuine threats could quickly evolve into a mechanism for suppressing dissent, silencing critics of UK Sport, or even limiting athletes’ ability to engage openly with the public.
This initiative comes as part of a broader push by sports authorities to expand digital surveillance. AI-powered moderation was deployed during the Paris Olympics to police online discourse, and World Athletics has implemented round-the-clock monitoring for a select group of top athletes. But UK Sport’s ambitions go further—encompassing hundreds of athletes and extending across the entire four-year Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
