The Guardian reports that home secretary Yvette Cooper, has vowed to crack down on people “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs”, including extreme misogyny, as she announced a new approach to fighting extremism.
The Home Office has commissioned a rapid review to inform a new government counter-extremism strategy on how best to tackle the threat posed by extremist ideologies online and offline.
Officials will assess “the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism” alongside “ideological trends” that have gained traction including extreme misogyny. The scheme also aims to assess the causes and conduct of radicalisation of young people online and offline.
The MP for Birmingham Yardley, who has been open about the misogynistic hate she has received online, said social media companies “are undoubtedly going to have to be part of the solution”.
Last week Dame Sara Khan, who was Rishi Sunak’s independent adviser on social cohesion and resilience until May this year and acted as a counter-extremism commissioner under Theresa May and Boris Johnson, said the Tory government had left the UK wide open to far-right violence by ignoring red flags and stoking fires with a culture war agenda.
In a damning intervention, she told the Guardian: “The writing was clearly on the wall for some time. All my reports have shown, in a nutshell, that firstly these extremist and cohesion threats are worsening; secondly that our country is woefully unprepared. We’ve got a gap in our legislation which is allowing these extremists to operate with impunity.”
Read more on The Guardian.
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