A Pledge for Candidates in the Forthcoming General Election
This 10 point plan originates from the online and street based work that Tell MAMA has undertaken. Whilst we work on tackling anti-Muslim hatred, many of these issues cross other strands of work such as tackling and countering LGBT hate or anti-Semitism. We call upon Prospective Parliamentary Candidates to sign up to our 10 Point Pledge to tackle online and street based hate crimes. Together, with your help and assistance, we can ensure that no-one is targeted because of their identities within our country.
1. We believe that social media companies must act swiftly and quickly to remove illegal hate material that is reported to them by members of the public, police forces or third party hate crime agencies. Social media companies have signed up to the ‘EU Code of Conduct’ on the removal of illegal hate speech within 24 hours of notification. We urge them to meet these requirements.
2. Social media companies must ensure that hate promoting videos from far right or Islamist extremist groups must be removed from their platforms. As the Home Affairs Select Committee report on hate crime entitled ‘Hate crime: abuse, hate and extremism online’ (2017) mentions, extremist groups have used such platforms “as a vehicle of choice for spreading terrorist propaganda”.
3. Internet search companies must delink their search engine from picking up extremist web-sites, thereby reducing audiences towards such sites when they use search terms. These companies cannot continue to suggest that the problem rests only with Internet service providers, many of whom are based in the US and who require US based court orders. They must take some responsibility in this matter.
4. Police, third party hate crime agencies and support staff must always ensure that victims of hate crimes know their rights under the Code of Practice for Victims. Victims have numerous rights during the process of investigating the crime.
5. Social media companies must raise awareness around the intersectionality of hate towards the multiple identities of victims. For example, some Muslim women are targeted because they are Muslims and women and this raises unique characteristics for social media companies to understand in order to reduce the volume of such hate involving multiple elements of a person’s identity.
6. Social media companies must ensure that they implement processes that stop hate crime perpetrators from opening up multiple accounts, when they have previously been permanently suspended by the relevant platform. Continued inaction by them on this is unacceptable.
7. The cost of hate being promoted on social media platforms cannot be picked up by the public purse through police forces and civil society groups monitoring hate crimes. If social media companies consistently fail to remove illegal material or if they fail to show that they are undertaking pro-active mechanisms to tackle hatred, they should be fined.
8. We urge politicians to ensure that they do not inflame community tensions or single out whole communities for inflammatory rhetoric in the run up to the election. What our country needs are policies that seek to address opportunity for all and to ensure that people feel their voices are heard. This is not done by dividing communities.
9. We urge social media companies to be more transparent in how they assess complaints made by members of the public. Right now, little public information is provided on the numbers of people working on complaints in these companies, their training and awareness on the context of hate in each country and how they understand the changing nature of hate on issues such as anti-Semitism or anti-Muslim hatred.
10. Social media companies must invest in a national social fund for police and hate crime agencies so that they can ensure that hate crime monitoring and reporting work can continue and that the cost to the public purse does not continue. Many social media companies provide no actual funding for this work, whilst hate percolates through their platforms. This is no longer acceptable.
SUPPORTERS
Wes Streeting: Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Ilford North, Labour, 2017
Maria Miller – Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Basingstoke, Conservative Party, 2017
Jeremy Newmark, Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Labour, Golders Green, 2017
Stephen Williams, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bristol West, Liberal Democrats, 2017
Andy Croy, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Wokingham, Labour Party, 2017
Phil Waite, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Harlow, Labour Party, 2017
Claire Edwards, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Rugby, Labour Party, 2017
Chris Jones, Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich North, Labour Party, 2017
Sarah Church, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South Swindon, Labour Party, 2017
Mike Gapes, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Ilford South, Labour Party, 2017
Stacey Blair, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Dover, Green Party, 2017
Alan Durrant, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Gosport, Labour Party, 2017
Paul Raybold, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Torbay, Labour Party, 2017
Elizabeth Hughes, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, Labour Party, 2017
Emily Owen, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Aberconwy, Labour Party, 2017
Rachael Maskell, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for York Central, Labour Party, 2017
David Drew, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Stroud, Labour Party, 2017
Dan Lodge, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Brecon and Radnor, Labour Party, 2017
Barry Kirby, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Gloucester, Labour Party, 2017
Alan Clark, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for East Yorks, Labour Party, 2017
Clive Lewis, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich South, Labour Party, 2017
Patrick Canavan, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Christchurch, Labour Party, 2017
Stephen Powers, Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Hexham, Labour Party, 2017
Ibrahim Dogus, Parliamentary Candidate for Cities of London and Westminster, Labour party, 2017
Julia Buckley, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bridgnorth, Labour Party, 2017
Rachel Eden, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Wantage, Labour Party, 2017
Mike Katz, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hendon, Labour Party, 2017
Nav Mishra, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hazel Grove, Labour, 2017
Vernon Coaker, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Gedling, Labour Party, 2017
Catherine West, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hornsey and Wood Green, Labour Party, 2017
Altany Craik, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Glenrothes, Labour Party, 2017
Chris Ostrowski, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Watford, Labour Party, 2017
Ashley Dalton – Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Rochford and Southend East, Labour, 2017
Dr Neeraj Patil, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Putney, Labour Party, 2017
Barrie Fairbairn, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Grantham, Labour Party, 2017
Chantal Lee, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Newark, Labour Party, 2017
Cllr Michael Thompson, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bromsgrove, Labour Party, 2017
Michael Rolfe, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, Labour Party, 2017
Hollie Devanney, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Haltemprice and Howden, Labour Party, 2017
Kate Green Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Stretford and Urmston, Labour Party, 2017
Andy Merryfield, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Somerset, Labour Party, 2017
Laura Dover, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Kilmarnock and Loudon, Labour Party, 2017
Peter Edwards, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Maldon, Labour Party, 2017
Camilla Beaven, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan, Labour Party, 2017
Alan De’ath, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Chelsea and Fulham, Labour Party, 2017
Olivia Bell, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Labour Party, 2017
Thangam Debbonaire, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bristol West, Labour Party, 2017
Rt Hon George Howarth, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Knowsley, Labour Party, 2017
Susannah Brady, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Horsham, Labour Party, 2017
Mary Gwen Griffiths Clarke, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Arfon, Labour party, 2017
Mandi Tattershall, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hemel Hempstead, Labour, 2017
Jim Clarke, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Sleaford and North Hykeham, Labour Party, 2017
Sarah Simpson, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Mid-Norfolk, Labour Party, 2017