Britain’s public prosecutor has announced a crackdown on online hate speech, citing its “corrosive effect” and promising that it would be treated with "the same robust and proactive approach used with offline offending.”
The British Board of Jewish Deputies welcomed the tougher new Crown Prosecution Service guideline. "This is a positive step towards tackling hate crime in the UK. Whether it is face to face or online, hate speech is illegal and must be treated as such," said Board of Deputies Chief Executive Gillian Merron. "Social media companies must also continue to up their game in fighting hateful attitudes online and we will continue to raise this in our meetings with them.”
Practically speaking, this means that the Crown Prosecution Service will now go after abusive social media posts that are considered to be racist or hateful.
“Hate crime can be perpetrated online or offline, or there can be a pattern of behaviour that includes both. The internet and social media in particular have provided new platforms for offending behaviour,” the CPS announced in a statement reported by The Independent.
According to reports, the CPS will work to identify both “originators” and “amplifiers or disseminators” of such proscribed speech.
The Anti-Semitism Policy Trust, an advocacy group that works with MPs and government officials to formulate anti-Semitism related policies, praised the new guidelines.
Danny Stone MBE, Director of the Antisemitism Policy Trust and a member of the World Jewish Congress' Jewish Diplomatic Corps, said in a statement that he was “delighted” that the CPS had " accepted the recommendation of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism from 2015, to update its social media guidance. This announcement is a welcome extension of that work.”
"Our prosecutors and judges should have a full and detailed understanding of how online hate operates so that they can deal with it appropriately including through the use of Criminal Behaviour or Prevention Orders,” he continued. "Whilst a single victim may be targeted, online hate does not work in a vacuum. The next step is for the social media industry to step up to the mark, put its money where its mouth is and deliver real changes for combating online hate."
In contrast, the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism told The Independent that recent rises in anti-Semitism were accompanied by a “decrease in the already low prosecution rate for offences against Jews and a complete lack of transparency by the CPS with regard to the manner in which it deals with anti-Semitic crime”.
