The unit will investigate all online hate crimes reported to police in the capital, including abuse posted on Twitter and Facebook. The hub also intends to provide referrals to victim-support groups, and work with police in relevant boroughs to investigate alleged hate crimes. City Hall said discussions were also under way with social-media companies, ‘to develop appropriate online sanctions for perpetrators of online hate’.
This is a deeply sinister and censorious move. But what’s most worrying is that for something to be labelled a ‘hate crime’, it only has to be labelled as such by the alleged victim. You might have been offensive or rude to someone in the course of an argument, but if they decide that you were motivated by the fact they are female, trans, gay, Muslim, Cornish or some mix of all of those things, it’s possible that you will be investigated for a hate crime – and potentially get a criminal record.
Read here
The unit will investigate all online hate crimes reported to police in the capital, including abuse posted on Twitter and Facebook. The hub also intends to provide referrals to victim-support groups, and work with police in relevant boroughs to investigate alleged hate crimes. City Hall said discussions were also under way with social-media companies, ‘to develop appropriate online sanctions for perpetrators of online hate’.
This is a deeply sinister and censorious move. But what’s most worrying is that for something to be labelled a ‘hate crime’, it only has to be labelled as such by the alleged victim. You might have been offensive or rude to someone in the course of an argument, but if they decide that you were motivated by the fact they are female, trans, gay, Muslim, Cornish or some mix of all of those things, it’s possible that you will be investigated for a hate crime – and potentially get a criminal record.
Read here