Online hate crimes should be treated as seriously as abuse committed face-to-face, prosecutors in England and Wales have been told.<\/p>\n
Revising its guidance for prosecutors, the Crown Prosecution Service said the impact of tweeting abuse can be as “equally devastating” as shouting it.<\/p>\n
The guidance includes offences against bisexual people for the first time.<\/p>\n
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said online abuse can fuel “dangerous hostility”.<\/p>\n
She said the internet and social media in particular have provided “new platforms” for abuse.<\/p>\n
Writing\u00a0in the Guardian<\/a>, she said recent events in the US – where white supremacists clashed with anti-racism groups in Charlottesville – showed what online abuse can lead to.<\/p>\n “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,” Ms Saunders said.<\/p>\n In 2016, a man was jailed for harassing Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger after a campaign of anti-Semitic abuse. She said she welcomed the CPS guidelines.<\/p>\n The CPS says it has set out more clearly what victims and witnesses should expect from the law.<\/p>\n The\u00a0new legal guidance<\/a>\u00a0and accompanying CPS public statements guide prosecutors deciding whether to charge suspects of offences motivated by hostility towards people of different races, religions, sexuality, gender and disability.<\/p>\n Cases should be pursued with the same “robust and proactive approach used with offline offending”.<\/p>\n It says exceptions to prosecution should be made in the case of children who may not appreciate the potential harm they have caused by publishing something online that amounts to a hate crime.<\/p>\n Until now, CPS guidance on hate crime motivated by sexual orientation has had a general focus on all victims.<\/p>\n The new guidance specifically refers to bisexual victims, particularly if they report being victimised by gay men or lesbians.<\/p>\n According to the latest figures<\/a>, the CPS successfully prosecuted more than 15,000 hate crime incidents in 2015-16 – the highest number ever. A third of those convicted saw their sentence increased because of the hate crime element of the offence – also a record.<\/p>\n However, in the same year, the number of cases being referred by police to prosecutors for a decision fell by almost 10%.<\/p>\n Nik Noone, chief executive of Galop, a charity that campaigns against anti-LGBT violence and hate crime,\u00a0said its own research<\/a>\u00a0suggested many victims did not have confidence in the police to report online hate attacks.<\/p>\n “The threshold for prosecuting online hate crime is very high, and the investigative process is often too slow and cumbersome to respond to the fast-moving online world,” she said.<\/p>\n Analysis by\u00a0Dominic Casciani, BBC home affairs correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n Hate crime is any criminal offence “which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice”.<\/p>\n The difficulty is working out where the line is drawn between that and words that are simply offensive.<\/p>\n Obvious examples are words linked to violence – such as the\u00a0racially-aggravated threat made by an aristocrat on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0against businesswoman Gina Miller.<\/p>\n Other online abuse can amount to harassment or the crime of inciting hatred.<\/p>\n Campaigners say too many charging decisions based on existing guidance have landed on the wrong side of the line, leaving victims let down.<\/p>\n If the CPS is serious about getting tough with online hate crime, they say there needs to be more than a change in guidance – there needs to be a change in will.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"