The Crown Prosecution Service is reviewing plans to treat online hate crime as seriously as offences carried out face to face.
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders has highlighted the seriousness of online hate crime, saying it can lead to events seen in Charlottesville over the weekend.
“Left unchallenged, even low-level offending can subsequently fuel the kind of dangerous hostility that has been plastered across our media in recent days. That is why countering it is a priority for the CPS,” she wrote in the The Guardian.
“Whether shouted in their face on the street, daubed on their wall or tweeted into their living room, the impact of hateful abuse on a victim can be equally devastating.”
“In a world of grotesque physical attacks that may appear a heavy-handed approach to some. But perhaps we should ask the question, what is it that the perpetrators seek to achieve? One common thread that links online purveyors of hate with those who commit physical hate crimes or real-world terrorists is the desire to undermine and instil fear in those they target, both individually and collectively in their communities, because of their characteristics, be that faith, religion, disability or sexuality.”
Scotland’s Crown Office issued similar guidelines back in 2014, saying “if it would be illegal to say it on the street, it is illegal to say it online”.
Labour councillor Seyi Akiwowo told BBC Radio London of experiences she had with online abuse.
“They’re not just words. They actually echo the behaviour we don’t tolerate in society so we shouldn’t start thinking its OK to say on any platform, on social media and the internet.
“There needs to be a big campaign about proper conduct online…[and] about what you can do as a witness.
“You wouldn’t be a bystander to a crime in society. If we saw someone being mugged, or being abused we wouldn’t stand back we would try and intervene in some way.”
Although online abuse is on the rise, more and more people are getting prosecuted.
The CPS prosecuted 15,000 people 2015-16, which is the highest number recorded.