From Hashtags to Harm: How Research is Uncovering and Confronting Online Abuse in Sport

Online abuse has become one of the most urgent challenges facing the world of sport today. From racist slurs against athletes to the harassment of referees, journalists, and volunteers, the sporting arena has become a frontline for digital hate. These aren’t just isolated incidents, they represent a persistent and systemic problem that’s reshaping how people experience sport. The abuse doesn’t just threaten individuals; it undermines participation, trust, and the integrity of sport itself. That’s why it is key that researchers, educators, and governing bodies come together to push for real change.

The United Against Online Abuse (UAOA) campaign, launched by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 2022, is a global coalition uniting sport organisation, governments, academics, and tech platforms. Its mission is ambitious: to understand and fight online abuse across all levels of sport; not just reactively, but through research, education, and systems-level reform. One of the campaign’s major contributions has been the creation of a research scholarship programme in partnership with DCU, supporting scholars who are investigating how abuse operates and how it can be addressed through research-led solutions.

As part of this initiative, a group of MPhil scholars at DCU are examining a wide range of issues connected to online harm in sport, the work spans issues from hate speech in Italian football, to the social identity of female motorsport fans, to the governance strategies of major sporting federations. My own research focuses on how educational responses to online abuse are designed and whether they truly empower people to resist harmful digital cultures or merely tick the box exercise.

Another leading example of this is Tackling Online Hate in Football (TOHIF), one of the first large-scale initiatives to trace the evolution of online hate in football which is arguably the most globally watched and discussed sport. The project examines social media commentary across major international events, including the European Championships and World Cups between 2008 and 2022. Its team combines data science, discourse analysis, and stakeholder interviews to explore not just what abuse looks like, but how it spreads and why it persists. Its findings reveal that high-profile incidents, such as the racist abuse following the Euro 2020 final, are just the tip of the iceberg. Abuse happens daily on fan forums, in player mentions, and around controversial matches.

Across all our projects, one thing is clear: combating online abuse in sport requires more than banning keywords or reactive penalties. It requires a deeper understanding of how abuse reflects and reinforces broader social inequalities and how solutions must be culturally informed, inclusive, and sustainable.

By connecting research with lived experience, and by bridging the worlds of data, education, and activism, we aim to support a future where sport remains a space of joy, fairness, and belonging both on and offline.

This blog is the first in a series that will spotlight research, share findings and reflections on the societal impact of online abuse in sport and our work against it. If you’d like to explore some of the existing research and resources, you can visit the United Against Online Abuse campaign at https://unitedagainstonlineabuse.com/, the DCU Business School’s page on Online Harms in Sport: https://business.dcu.ie/business-insights/online-harms-in-sport/, and TOHIF’s podcast series on: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Bcxt3y2H6TAR1jVeBenJL