New UK police hub aims to curb online hate crime

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - A new U.K. police unit to crack down on a rising tide of online hate has been welcomed by campaigners, but some are warning the new measures do not go far enough.

The U.K. government announced last weekend a new unit of experts which will “channel all reports of online hate crime”.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd described online hate crime as “completely unacceptable.”

“What is illegal offline is illegal online, and those who commit these cowardly crimes should be met with the full force of the law,” she said.

A surge in reports of hate crime followed Britain’s EU referendum in June 2016, while official police figures said there was another spike around the terrorist attacks that hit the U.K. earlier this year.

A total of 62,518 hate crimes were recorded by forces in England and Wales in 2015/16, while the Crown Prosecution Service dealt with a record 15,442 hate crime cases.

The new hub will become operational by the end of the year according to the Home Office, however, how it will operate and what tools it will use to identify and categorize targeted online hatred have yet to be specified.

Run by officers for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), it will work “to ensure online cases are managed effectively and efficiently,” according to the Home Office. “It will clearly set out the [police] force responsible for further action in each case, removing any uncertainty which could arise when, for example, a victim is located in one area, with the alleged perpetrator in another.”

Rudd said the online hate crime hub will be “an important step to ensure more victims have the confidence to come forward and report the vile abuse to which they are being subjected”.

“With the police, we will use this new intelligence to adapt our response so that even more victims are safeguarded and perpetrators punished,” she said.

Its arrival comes as the number of hateful messages and fake news targeting Muslims and other minorities is on the rise. Islamophobic attacks on Muslims and mosques in the wake of this year’s Manchester and London terror attacks have also gone up.

Alison Saunders, a lawyer and Director of Public Prosecutions at CPS promised action and stiffer penalties for offenders.

Writing for British daily the Guardian, Saunders said it was vital to counter hate speech online as it could fuel physical violence.

“Left unchallenged, even low-level offending can subsequently fuel the kind of dangerous hostility that has been plastered across our media in recent days," she wrote.

"That is why countering it is a priority for the CPS," she added.

-Justice

However, although this new initiative from a government buried under the enormous burden negotiating Brexit with the European Union was welcomed, much more needed to be done according to campaigners who have dealt with Islamophobia in the U.K.

Iman Atta, director of TellMama -- an organization registering anti-Muslim and Islamophobic hate crimes -- told Anadolu Agency the hub was a positive step but swift justice should also be meted out to the perpetrators of online hate crime.

“The government’s new initiative to tackle online hate crime is certainly a step in the right direction,” Atta said.

“People who take to social media to express their hate and xenophobia to a fellow human being must be brought to justice,” she said.

“However, it is also important to distinguish between different types of hate crimes, particularly online crimes committed out of racial and religious hatred,” she added.

“It is particularly worrying that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are both on the rise in online platforms, and perpetrators of these heinous crimes must face the full force of justice quickly so that it works as a deterrent.”

Salman al-Azami, a senior lecturer from Liverpool Hope University and the author of the book Religion in the Media: A Linguistic Analysis thinks the government overall falls short when dealing with Islamophobia particularly.

Azami told Anadolu Agency May’s Conservative Party should do more to identify anti-Muslim hate crime with its own ranks and “root out” those members and representative who “show their hatred against Islam and Muslims”.

- Surge in hate crime

Speaking in August, the NPCC’s leading officer on hate crime, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, said the spike in hate crime showed how "terrorist attacks and other national and global events have the potential to trigger short-term spikes in hate crime and so we have been carefully monitoring community tensions following recent horrific events".

“As terrorists seek to divide us, it is more important than ever that we continue to stand united in the face of hostility and hatred,” Hamilton said.

The new police hub also comes as some far-right groups and individuals turn online posturing into physical threats.

Data from British police forces across the country compiled by the U.K.’s Press Association this week said officers recorded 110 hate crimes directed at mosques between March and July this year alone, up from just 47 over the same period in 2016.

But whether the new online hate crime hub will be able to curb offenders or not will be seen after it becomes operational in three months’ time.