INTERNET TROLLING

Online trolling could soon be made a criminal offence in the UK

ONLINE TROLLING could be made a criminal offence, the UK Justice Secretary has said.

David Gauke suggested he was prepared to act after Katie Price launched a campaign and petition for tougher penalties for web abuse.

The TV personality’s son Harvey, 15 – who is partially blind, autistic and has a range of other health problems – suffers constant abuse on social media, but last year a 19-year-old who targeted him on Twitter only received a police caution. Miss Price then set up a campaign demanding a new criminal offence to make online trolling a specific crime. Thus far, it has received 220,000 signatures – and led to an appearance in front of the Commons petitions committee.

Miss Price told the committee that a line should be drawn between ‘banter’ and criminal abuse – and said the law had failed to keep up with the changing use of technology.

Asked about the concerns Miss Price had, Mr Gauke acknowledged that we often see some appalling behaviour on social media.

The intervention comes just days after Theresa May warned social media giants they were undermining British democracy by allowing ‘intimidation and aggression’ to run riot online.

Firms such as Facebook and Twitter will face an official assessment of whether they are cracking down on abuse. There will also be an annual transparency report to expose the worst companies which fail to tackle the scourge of web hatred.

Officials will publish data on the scale of harmful content reported to different internet firms, how much is removed and how quickly.

Speaking to MPs, Miss Price said police were powerless to act in many cases of online abuse. She also said she wanted to see the creation of a register of offenders.

Speaking about her son’s case, Miss Price said: ‘Even the police were really embarrassed because it got to the point where they couldn’t take it any further because they couldn’t charge them with anything because there is nothing in place… since then it has just continued.

‘If it was a criminal offence I do not believe there would be so much of it . . . it would stop so many deaths, harassment and abuse. Some of you MPs have even had it as well. It happens to everyone – so it’s a no-brainer really.’