UK ministers consider ombudsman for online hate crimes

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is looking at a proposed internet ombudsman who would deal with complaints over illegal online content, including violent and abusive threats made on social media.

The initiative comes on the back of a pledge by Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders this week to give online abuse parity with face to face threats.

A DCMS spokesperson said: “We are determined to make Britain the safest place in the world to be online, and to help people protect children from the risks they might face. Later this year we will publish the government’s internet safety strategy, and a levy on social media companies is one of a series of measures that we are considering as part of our work.”

Yvette Cooper, Labour MP and chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “Social media companies are still far too slow to act on dangerous extremism, illegal content, threats or intimidation online, and it is affecting all our lives. These are the biggest and richest companies in the world – they should be able to get their act together, but they are still failing. So government needs to get on with this.

“The home affairs select committee called in February for social media companies to be fined if they fail to act and to make financial contributions out of their massive profits towards the police who are having to deal with the online extremism, crime and threats that social media companies are giving a platform to. This is too important to ignore.”