The 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.
The review will assess the ideological spectrum and is intended to address “gaps in the current system” that leave the country exposed to hateful or harmful activity that promotes violence or undermines democracy.
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.
Cooper has previously said the last government’s counter-extremism strategy was nine years out of date. She believes the review will lay the foundations for Labour to deliver on its manifesto promise of preventing people from being drawn towards hateful ideologies.
It comes after a decade of warnings from the police and former government advisers about the need to address the rise of hateful extremism and the proliferation of dangerous material online.
Responding to concerns that treating misogyny as extremism could criminalise free speech, the Home Office minister Jess Phillips told LBC: “You just use the exact same test you would with far-right extremism and Islamism, wouldn’t you.
“The same test would have to apply.
“People can hold views about women all they like, but it’s not OK any more to ignore the massive growing threat caused by online hatred towards women and for us to ignore it because we’re worried about the line, rather than making sure the line is in the right place as we would do with any other extremist ideology.”
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”.
She said: “With the previous government’s online safety bill, that still hasn’t come into fruition yet but we’re going to have to make sure that is as robust as possible because if my teenage sons watch something on the television, there is a far, far greater place for me to have that regulated and to know that can be trusted than when they’re in their bedrooms and I have no idea what they’re looking at and the level of regulation is considerably lower at the moment.”
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.”
Cooper said: “For too long governments have failed to address the rise in extremism, both online and on our streets, and we’ve seen the number of young people radicalised online grow. Hateful incitement of all kinds fractures and frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy.
“Action against extremism has been badly hollowed out in recent years, just when it should have been needed most. That’s why I have directed the Home Office to conduct a rapid analytical sprint on extremism, to map and monitor extremist trends, to understand the evidence about what works to disrupt and divert people away from extremist views, and to identify any gaps in existing policy which need to be addressed to crack down on those pushing harmful and hateful beliefs and violence.
“That work will underpin a new strategic approach to countering extremism from government, working closely with communities to build consensus and impetus for our plans.”
Since riots broke out across England after disinformation circulated about the stabbings in Southport that left three girls dead, at least 72 people under the age of 18 are believed to have been charged with related offences. By the end of Thursday at least 460 people had appeared in magistrates courts in connection with the disorder.
• This article replaces an earlier version of 18 August 2024, which appeared under the headline “Extreme misogyny to be treated as terrorism under UK government plans”. In fact such misogyny would be treated as extremism, not terrorism, under a planned review of counter-extremism strategy. The version published above includes further revisions and updates.
