On-Line Hate Crimes Are Finally To Be Taken Seriously

On-line Hate Crimes are finally to be taken as seriously as Face-to-Face abuse.

The Crown Prosecution Service has announced today that individuals who have been subject to on-line hate crimes can have confidence in knowing that, should they report the abuse, they can expect the same level of robust pursuit of the perpetrator as if they had been confronted face-to-face.

On-line hate crime is reported to be rising, frequently spiking following the episodes of terror attacks. In light of this trend the Crown Prosecution Service has revised its guidance to criminal prosecutors. The director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, indicated that the new on-line hate crime guidelines will follow the same approach to that which is applied to off-line offences.

All the different strands of hate-crime, racist, disability, religious, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic, have the same corrosive effect on their victims and have nothing to do with freedom of speech, which some social media platforms use as a defence when they fail to deal with such abuse. Hate crime is a daily reality for many people and often the anonymous on-line vitriol is far greater than that delivered face-to-face. Many individuals hide behind social media platforms believing that they are...