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UK.gov To Treat Online Abuse as Seriously as Hate Crime in Real Life (theregister.co.uk)

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service has pledged to tackle online abuse with the same seriousness as it does hate crimes committed in the flesh. From a report: Following public concern about the increasing amount of racist, anti-religious, homophobic and transphobic attacks on social media, the CPS has today published a new set of policy documents on hate crime. This includes revised legal guidance for prosecutors on how they should make decisions on criminal charges and handle cases in court. The rules officially put online abuse on the same level as offline hate crimes -- defined as an action motivated by hostility or prejudice -- like shouting abuse at someone face-to-face. They commit the CPS to prosecuting complaints about online material "with the same robust and proactive approach used with online offending." Prosecutors are told to consider the effect on the wider community and whether to identify both the originators and the "amplifiers or disseminators."

10 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good, nazis need to pay by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The above is now considered "hate speech." You get to go first.

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  2. Re: Good, nazis need to pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And by Nazis you mean anyone who disagrees with you, even just a little bit.

    Violence begets violence. Remember that you condoned it when it happens to you or someone you care about. You have ceded the moral ground entirely, and are just another violent extremist.

  3. Re:Good, nazis need to pay by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are you really publicly hating on people based on their political opinion?

    If someone says "I'm a Nazi, I directly support the policies of Hitler" then I have no problem hating on them.

    Fair enough. Of course the vast majority of people being called Nazis currently do not meet that definition. They just happen to be anywhere to the right of what the Democratic party dogma.

  4. Re:Good, nazis need to pay by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And that's exactly what is not happening. The label "Nazi" is being issued by people trying to silence their opponents by slapping that label onto them.

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Re:Good, nazis need to pay by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Political speech is protected in most places remember? You know what that means don't you? Yep, it's a two way street! The rules you use against someone else, will inevitably be used against you.

    Ah, the good old days. Where people understood that freedom of speech means, you also have to defend distasteful and hateful speech. Not because you agree with it, but to protect your own.

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  6. Re:Hate speech by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In a number of European countries, hate speech is lumped in with hate crimes. Try being a public Holocaust Denier in Germany or Austria.

    Not every country has the First Amendment, and the UK has traditionally had more restrictions on speech than the US.

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  7. Re:What happened to sticks and stones? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's is a populist effort now to curtail the freedom of speech.

    In 1930s, it was the popular-right Nazis. Now, it's the popular-left-socialists. (and I say this with a grain of salt, as I do support some form of socialism). But yeah, if you look at some of the initial tactics, they're no different. Nazis didn't become Nazis on day one... they first became extraordinary popular---so popular that anyone who disagreed with them was afraid to question them.... this is what's happening now! (e.g. Google dude dared to question the current-state-of-affairs, and got fired and perhaps became unemployable due to that... would YOU question something you don't agree with?).

  8. Re:Nobody has the right not to be offended... by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People who smugly claim to only be intolerant of intolerance (sometimes stated intolerables), without a hint of sarcasm, will never cease to amaze me. It's like they can't follow the most basic logical premise.

  9. Re:Good, nazis need to pay by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nazi speech is not political, it is hate crime. And remember, while religions are protected - even muslim, yet, ISIS speech won't be protected.

    And now we get to see how easy it is to label something a hate crime. "You said so." And now to restrict, to censor, to hide, to let it fester. To show people "yes, we really are being persecuted. Join us because we do have answers ye downtrodden!" Living in Canada and having seen "hate crime" law in action, where the CHRC(Canadian Human Rights Commission) manufactured evidence to go after political opponents, this is why the censoring of non-harmful speech is so dangerous. It's one of the reasons that Section 13 of the CHRC was revoked.

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  10. Re:Good, nazis need to pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since when did being Neo-Nazi get downgraded to merely a "political opinion"?

    Since the alt-left started calling people nazis over any deviation from feminism and identity politics.