Webwatch: Charities form Twitter alliance in bid to stamp out hate speech on social networks

By Jamie Harris, Reporter13th October 2020WebwatchCharities, Hate Speech / Harassment, Online Abuse, Social Media, Webwatch

A group of anti-hate charities have formed an alliance on Twitter in a bid to combat hate speech online.

The Jo Cox Foundation and Hope not Hate are among the 11 charities taking part in the #StandUpToHate campaign, which has been launched during Hate Crime Awareness Week.

Users will be presented with guidance on how they can be responsible digital citizens whenever they like a promoted tweet from one of the charities.

It comes amid ongoing concern about the spread of hate speech on social networks and continued calls for tech giants to act faster on the matter.

Baroness Williams of Trafford, Minister for Countering Extremism, said: “The Government is clear that online offending is as serious as offline offending which is why we are working with tech companies, law enforcement and our international partners to tackle hate crimes on tech platforms.

“We are also working at pace to develop legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, which will introduce a new duty of care on companies and will be overseen by an independent regulator.

“The #StandUpToHate campaign is a great initiative, bringing together a range of organisations to stamp out online hate, and we are pleased to support it.”

Antisemitism Policy Trust, British Future, Galop, Glitch, Inclusion London, Kick It Out, Media Diversity Institute, Tell Mama and Women’s Aid are also participating in the initiative.

“We share the belief that a vital step in addressing online abuse is equipping online users with how to best support those at the receiving end of online hate,” a spokesperson for the alliance of organisations said.

“We hope to see widespread behaviour change, where as a society we feel enabled to play our part in making the online space free of hate – and to understand the hugely detrimental human and democratic impacts it has when left unchallenged. As digital citizens, each one of us has a responsibility to act, and the wholesale rejection of online hate and abuse online must be our end goal.”

Katy Minshall, head of public policy for Twitter UK, added: “On Twitter, you should feel safe expressing your unique point of view.

“We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up.

“We are delighted to support these 11 organisations on this innovative campaign.”