Police In The UK To Create An Online Anti-Hate Crime & Abuse Team

Online harassment isn’t new, and it isn’t very uncommon either which is actually rather sad. So far social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more have taken steps to try and reduce this, or given users the option to report such behavior. However many feel that the time to respond isn’t as quick as it could be.

Now it seems that over in the UK, the police will be setting up a special team aimed at handling online hate crime and abuse on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The team will start off small with 5 officers and will exist for 2 years as a pilot program, with the initiative costing £1.7 million.

According to the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (Mopac), they claim that social media “provides hate crime perpetrators with a veil of anonymity, making it harder to bring them to justice and potentially impacting on a larger number of people,” which is why this team is being setup.

A spokesman for Mopac adds, “Community groups in London have told us that online hate crime is an issue of increasing concern to them, and one for which the police response has in the past been inconsistent.” We’ve seen various initiatives created in the past, but hopefully this one will be more effective.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Legal