London becomes first UK town to have police unite dedicated to fighting online hate crime

London will become UK’s first city with a special police unite designated to fight online hate crimes. The measure is part of the mayor’s new Police and Crime Plan and will receive a funding of £1,730,726 over the next two years, of which £452,756 is provided by the Home Office Police Innovation Fund.

The new unit is charged to improve police response to online hate crimes by gathering intelligence, offering a better understanding of the phenomenon and testing new investigative methods. Called the Online Hate Crime Hub, the unite will have five Met officers led by a Detective Inspector and they will work together with community groups, social media organisations, academic hate crime specialists and criminal justice partners,  to identify, prevent and investigate these crimes, including abuse on Twitter and Facebook.

Given the figures reported by NGO’s, the officers will have their work cut out for them. Jewish and Muslim non-profits say that between 20 percent to 70 percent of the reports they receive involve online hate crimes and figures suggests that most of these crimes go unreported. Moreover for some victims, the harm caused by these crimes can be severe.

“As a woman with a severe facial disfigurement, I’ve often found myself subjected to horrendous online abuse because of my disability. It has, at times, been so awful that I’ve been left fearful for my physical safety too”, said Victoria Wright, a London-based disability and disfigurement rights campaigner.

For people like Victoria, the Hub is a much needed and long-awaited reaction to all the online abuse. The unite could prove to be essential when it comes to protecting the vulnerable and reducing this type of crimes.

Practically, once an online hate crime has been reported to the police, it will be automatically send to the Hub  which will try to provide victims with the support they need and work with the relevant borough officers to carry out a thorough investigation. Discussions are also underway between MOPAC, Stop Hate UK and leading social media companies to develop appropriate online sanctions for perpetrators of online hate, where there is evidence of significant harm to victims.

The Hub is part of the mayor’s manifesto commitment to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime of all forms.

“We know hate crime has a huge impact on those who experience it, and that online hate, where abusers mistakenly believe they are hidden behind a screen, can be particularly damaging”, said the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. “My approach is clear: there must be zero tolerance of this  behaviour, and we are working to improve protection for victims by taking advice from anti-hate organisations, who will examine whether something is actively causing harm and should be removed.”

The mayor also pointed out that authorities have to do more to encourage victims to report the incidents and explore new ways of identifying, preventing and challenging hate crime in all its forms.

The Hub was launched at the first Online Hate Crime Summit in the UK, promoted by the mayor and which brought together representatives from Twitter, Facebook, Crown Prosecution Service, the Met and charities.