Misogynistic abuse should be banned online, the Government believes.
Michelle Donelan, the Culture Secretary, is understood to believe the Online Safety Bill has the power to stamp out attacks on women on the internet.
The plans to crack down on online misogyny come as leading Tory peers including Baroness Morgan, a former culture secretary, are pushing for the law to go further to include a legally-enforced code of practice requiring social media firms to prevent online violence and abuse against women and girls.
“Michelle completely agrees with what the peers are saying, but this is stuff that the Bill is already doing,” said a government source.
Last year, ministers rejected calls to class misogyny as a hate crime. Instead, the Government compromised by creating a new offence of public sexual harassment in line with recommendations by the Law Commission.
Under the new Online Safety Bill, currently being finalised, social media firms will be required by law to abide by their terms and conditions, which generally bar misogynistic abuse. Failure to enforce them will result in fines, and their services could be blocked by Ofcom, the online watchdog.
Further measures require big social media platforms to provide users with optional online tools that would allow women to screen out misogynistic abuse.
However, a group of Tory peers including Baroness Morgan; Baroness Bertin, a former aide to David Cameron; and Baroness Newlove, a former victims’ commissioner, plan to put forward an amendment that would see the law go further.
The amendment would give Ofcom the power to fine social media companies up to 10 per cent of their global turnover if they failed to abide by a code outlawing online misogyny. The Labour Party will back it, raising the prospect that the Government may have to compromise or face defeat.
‘Women deliberately made to feel uncomfortable’
The Tory peers believe the Government’s current plans for new criminal offences such as cyber-stalking and sharing intimate images such as revenge porn do not go far enough and will fail to curb online misogynistic abuse that, while legal, harms women and girls.However, government sources said the new offences tackle crimes that “disproportionately” target women and girls – and that, under the new online safety legislation, social media companies would have to prevent and remove such content or face multi-million pound fines.
The Tory peers’ demands – also backed by Dame Maria Miller, a former culture secretary and women’s minister – flow from the Government’s decision to ditch measures in the Bill to protect adults from legal but harmful content after a backlash that they would undermine freedom of speech.
However, Baroness Morgan, who is also a former women’s minister, said online violence against women and girls restricted their freedom of expression, adding: “What about the right to access and participation online without being abused and harassed?
“There are going to be some specific criminal offences in the Bill, but they don’t address the misogyny that has grown up not just on small high harm platforms but right the way across mainstream platforms.
“It’s things like threats of rape, death threats, very much directed at women because they are women and girls. It’s designed to drive women off platforms. They don’t necessarily break the illegal threshold, but it all goes to making a space where women are deliberately made to feel uncomfortable.”
‘Women abused on a daily basis online’
Dame Maria said: “I completely agree with the need to ensure the regulator takes particular account of the impact of online abuse of women and girls. That’s why I support Baroness Morgan’s amendment. I will be continuing to have discussions with Ofcom to ensure that what is in the amendment happens in practice.”Baroness Bertin said: “Women are being abused on a daily basis online. It is a Wild West and women are being disproportionately affected by it. This is an opportunity to send a signal that this isn’t acceptable material.”
Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, said the Bill had been “severely weakened” by the removal of provisions on legal but harmful content, which had left “viral misogyny free to proliferate”.
“At the very least, Ofcom should have the power to set codes of practice for platforms, to ensure their systems and processes are not actively pushing people towards content that promotes violence against women and girls,” she told The Telegraph.
A potential draft code of practice for the online companies has already been drawn up by campaign groups including the NSPCC, 5Rights Foundation, Refuge, End Violence Against Women and the Carnegie Trust, which conceived the original duty of care concept behind the Government’s Online Safety Bill.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/03/online-misogyny-set-outlawed/ (Archive)
