nisien.ai has joined United Against Online Abuse, an international coalition bringing together sport, government, research and technology to develop a stronger collective response to online harm.
The partnership was formalised on 24 April 2026 and announced following nisien.ai’s Online Safeguarding Summit in London. At the event, delegates from sport, technology, law and public authorities examined how organisations can move from recognising online abuse to preventing harm and supporting the people exposed to it.
United Against Online Abuse was founded by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. Its work focuses on protecting athletes, officials, journalists and fans through research, advocacy, education and collaboration across the sporting ecosystem.
As a member of the coalition, nisien.ai will contribute its expertise in online harms and artificial intelligence to support evidence-led, coordinated action. That contribution is rooted in more than a decade of interdisciplinary research at Cardiff University’s HateLab, where criminology, social science, data science and machine learning have been combined to understand how hate and abuse develop online.
The partnership recognises that online abuse in sport cannot be addressed by technology alone. Harmful behaviour is often contextual: it can involve coded language, coordinated targeting, threats or rapidly changing narratives that simple keyword and sentiment tools may miss. Effective safeguarding therefore requires technical capability, human expertise and a clear understanding of the experiences of the people being targeted.
These themes were central to the London summit. Discussions highlighted the importance of centring lived experience, adapting interventions to different forms of perpetrator behaviour and improving cooperation between sporting bodies, technology providers, legal specialists and public agencies.
The collaboration has since moved into active knowledge exchange. In August 2026, nisien.ai took part in UAOA’s summer convening, which focused on how organisations can generate, share and use data more effectively. The meeting accompanied the launch of the UAOA International Research Network and plans for cross-sector working groups examining under-researched issues, including the experiences of sports officials and fans.
For HateLab, nisien.ai’s membership of UAOA demonstrates how academic research can contribute to international practice. Evidence and technology developed to identify and understand online hate can now inform collective work across sporting disciplines, jurisdictions and professional sectors.
No single organisation holds the complete picture of online abuse. By connecting research, operational safeguarding and the experiences of people across sport, the coalition aims to turn fragmented knowledge into more effective prevention, support and action.
Read nisien.ai’s LinkedIn post