Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to tackle online abuse and harassment targeted at Jewish people on (a) social media networks, (b) Facebook and (c) Twitter.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Government recognises the significant harm caused to individual Jewish victims and communities by online hate material. We have a robust legislative framework which allows the operationally independent Crown Prosecution Service and Judiciary to balance the right to exercise free speech with the need to protect communities and individuals from targeted abuse.

In July 2016, we published Action Against Hate: The UK Government’s Plan for Tackling Hate Crime which sets out a range of non-legislative responses. This includes counter-narrative activity and collaborative work with the Internet industry to identify ways to reduce the harm caused, for example, by taking down illegal material within 24 hours.