The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has vowed to crack down on people “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs”, including extreme misogyny, as she announced a new approach to fighting extremism.
The Home Office has commissioned a rapid review to inform a new government counter-extremism strategy on how best to tackle the threat posed by extremist ideologies online and offline.
The review will assess the ideological spectrum and is intended to address “gaps in the current system” that leave the country exposed to hateful or harmful activity that promotes violence or undermines democracy.
Officials will assess “the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism” alongside “ideological trends” that have gained traction including extreme misogyny. The scheme also aims to assess the causes and conduct of radicalisation of young people online and offline.
Cooper has previously said the last government’s counter-extremism strategy was nine years out of date. She believes the review will lay the foundations for Labour to deliver on its manifesto promise of preventing people from being drawn towards hateful ideologies.
It comes after a decade of warnings from the police and former government advisers about the need to address the rise of hateful extremism and the proliferation of dangerous material online.
Responding to concerns that treating misogyny as extremism could criminalise free speech, the Home Office minister Jess Phillips told LBC: “You just use the exact same test you would with far-right extremism and Islamism, wouldn’t you.
“The same test would have to apply.
“People can hold views about women all they like, but it’s not OK any more to ignore the massive growing threat caused by online hatred towards women and for us to ignore it because we’re worried about the line, rather than making sure the line is in the right place as we would do with any other extremist ideology.”
The MP for Birmingham Yardley, who has been open about the misogynistic hate she has received online, said social media companies “are undoubtedly going to have to be part of the solution”.
She said: “With the previous government’s online safety bill, that still hasn’t come into fruition yet but we’re going to have to make sure that is as robust as possible because if my teenage sons watch something on the television, there is a far, far greater place for me to have that regulated and to know that can be trusted than when they’re in their bedrooms and I have no idea what they’re looking at and the level of regulation is considerably lower at the moment.”
Hellbound and Down 