UK extremism approach should be based on behaviours, not ideologies – report
UK extremism approach should be based on behaviours, not ideologies – report
Share:
The UK’s approach to extremism should be based on concerning behaviours and activity rather than ideologies, according to a leaked Home Office review. Those include spreading misinformation, influencing racism, and involvement in “an online subculture called the manosphere”, according to the Policy Exchange think tank, which obtained a copy of the review.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in August she had directed the Home Office to conduct a “rapid analytical sprint on extremism” to map and monitor trends and inform the Government’s approach. It recommends reversing a code of practice to limit the number of “non-crime hate incidents” being recorded and floats the idea of creating a new crime of making “harmful communications” online, according to Policy Exchange.
It says claims of “two-tier” policing are an example of a “right-wing extremist narrative”. The think tank said the review lists “behaviours and activity of concern” and “damaging extremist beliefs” including misogyny, violence against women and girls and having a “fixation on gore and violence without adherence to an extremist ideology”.
It also lists “spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories”, “influencing racism and intolerance” and involvement in an “online subculture called the manosphere”. Paul Stott and Andrew Gilligan, of Policy Exchange, said in an analysis of the report that the suggested approach risks swamping authorities with new cases.
