Punish hate crime on social media with internet asbos, say MPs

[Reefa]

Social media users who persistently spread racial hatred online should be given “internet asbos” blocking them from sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according to an MPs’ report that examines the rising levels of antisemitism in Britain.

The Crown Prosecution Service has been asked by the all-party parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism to examine whether prevention orders, similar to those used to restrict sex offenders’ online access, could be applied to hate crimes.

The MPs suggested the orders could be imposed to bar determined perpetrators from social media.

Highly abusive posts on Twitter were singled out, including the hashtag “Hitler was right”, which was trending in July, and the “presence of Hitlerian themes and imagery on Facebook”.

The report says: “There is an allowance in the law for banning or blocking individuals from certain aspects of internet communication in relation to sexual offences. Informal feedback we have received from policy experts indicates that this is a potential area of exploration for prosecutors in relation to hate crime.

“If it can be proven in a detailed way that someone has made a considered and determined view to exploit various online networks to harm and perpetrate hate crimes against others then the accepted principles, rules and restrictions that are relevant to sex offences must surely apply.”

The suggestion comes after Twitter’s chief executive, Dick Costolo, admitted that the company had failed to deal with abuse and so-called trolling, vowing in an internal memo to “start kicking these people off right and left”.

The report says: “Given the scale of social media content produced on a daily, let alone minute by minute, basis, we have some, albeit limited, sympathy for the companies responsible for hosting it.

“Whilst there is rightly an expectation on those companies to act, as there is on government, police and prosecuting authorities, so too civil society has a crucial role to play.”

Last week figures from the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain, revealed a record number of antisemitic hate incidents in the UK last year.

Data from the Metropolitan police supplied to the MPs’ panel showed there were 306 antisemitic incidents and 236 offences in London between April and November 2014.

The issue has come under renewed scrutiny following the Paris terror attacks, when a Jewish supermarket was targeted.

Other proposals in the report include a government fund to cover security costs at synagogues, an independent council on antisemitism, and guidance for teachers talking about the Middle East conflict in the classroom.

Labour’s leader, Ed Miliband, said the Paris attacks were a “stark reminder of the evil that antisemitism can create”, adding that the report was timely and raised “important areas for action to eradicate this awful form of hatred”.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met police commissioner, said the force had taken steps to provide additional reassurance for Jewish communities in recent weeks.

He said: “The best way of helping police is to report all hate crime. However, as this report indicates, we need a wider response than the police and criminal justice system can deliver alone. We need society to become as vocally intolerant of faith hatred as it is of other forms of discrimination, and a clearer understanding of where freedom of speech oversteps the mark.”

theguardian

[humble3d]

I am afraid that the "Global Psychosis" is rampant all over the world... :(

[CODYQX4]

Any excuse for more censorship I suppose.

Just because some people are assholes isn't enough of a good reason to start internet banning people.

[flitox]

how about banning liars & dickheads from being politicians or bankers. now that would be called progress....

[ffi]

I have stopped counting the times I have been called a racist and a hatemongerer because I am critical of mohammedanism but I have a feeling that if this proposal should become law people like me would be the first victims of this law, not actually the group that committed these heinous crimes in Paris to which these politicians refer, namely mohammedans.

[The Owl]

I have stopped counting the times I have been called a racist and a hatemongerer because I am critical of mohammedanism but I have a feeling that if this proposal should become law people like me would be the first victims of this law, not actually the group that committed these heinous crimes in Paris to which these politicians refer, namely mohammedans.

as I said in another topic

I am 65

I am Ex British Military and a SNCO.

I don't give a fig about what colour or creed you are

I don't give a fig about what religion you are (Personally I think religion causes more troubles than it cures)

As long as your belief's and religion does not affect me and mine but when I went to your country I respected your laws and way's Please do the same in mine or suffer the consequences.

But if what you do in your country affects the world in a wider way do not expect me or my Country to stand by and watch.

[ffi]

I have stopped counting the times I have been called a racist and a hatemongerer because I am critical of mohammedanism but I have a feeling that if this proposal should become law people like me would be the first victims of this law, not actually the group that committed these heinous crimes in Paris to which these politicians refer, namely mohammedans.

as I said in another topic

I am 65

I am Ex British Military and a SNCO.

I don't give a fig about what colour or creed you are

I don't give a fig about what religion you are (Personally I think religion causes more troubles than it cures)

As long as your belief's and religion does not affect me and mine but when I went to your country I respected your laws and way's Please do the same in mine or suffer the consequences.

But if what you do in your country affects the world in a wider way do not expect me or my Country to stand by and watch.

I guess we can agree on this 100%, except that i am not 65 nor british nor Ex British Military and a SNCO

[The Owl]

thing is I come from a long line of "Military Men" and that I suppose is where I get my morality from, and I am sorry if it offends the Religious but my comment Personally I think religion causes more troubles than it cures is IMHO 100 + 1% accurate as is proven by what is happening around Europe now and in the Middle East.

But till ALL of humanity grows up I do not see it changing, it certainly hasn't in my 65+ years

[CODYQX4]

thing is I come from a long line of "Military Men" and that I suppose is where I get my morality from, and I am sorry if it offends the Religious but my comment Personally I think religion causes more troubles than it cures is IMHO 100 + 1% accurate as is proven by what is happening around Europe now and in the Middle East.

But till ALL of humanity grows up I do not see it changing, it certainly hasn't in my 65+ years

Unfortunately at the core, it never really does. Culture, technology, the things we know, how we live, does, but human nature never changes. I mean we are celebrating 11 days in NYC without a reported murder, after all, as in it is completely unusual for people in a large area to not regularly kill each other.

We think of ourselves as more advanced and civilized than people centuries ago, but really at the core most people are corrupt and greedy and out for themselves, and we allow the worst of them, who are skilled sociopathic liars with money and influence, who know how to smile as they twist the knife, to put on a suit and win elections. They tell us everything we want, demonize the other side (because Dems are commies and Repubs are fascists apparently, when they really aren't that different in reality), and people vote the line, then they get nothing for it, the exact opposite.