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The UK government will now treat misogyny as extremism

Vowing to crack down on people ‘pushing harmful and hateful beliefs,’ home secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a review of the country’s counter-extremism strategy. Part of a concerted effort to tackle ever-increasing violence against women and girls nationwide, Labour’s new approach is seeking to combat the radicalisation of young men online.

When Sarah Everard went missing in 2021, her story hit a deep nerve across the UK.

In the days following her death, women online shared their own experiences with assault or abuse and a timely study was published revealing that almost all young women in Britain have been victims of sexual harassment, with most never reporting it.

This confirmed what many already knew: that public spaces are often unsafe, and that local authorities aren’t doing nearly enough to protect us from misogynistic violence.

Today’s reality paints a painstakingly similar picture. Over three years on and misogynistic violence has not only not been dealt with accordingly – it’s worsened by a mile.

Just last month, six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event.

The Southport stabbings tragedy was one of many recent attacks motivated by hostility based on sex or gender (despite what online misinformation had far-right rioters believe and act on) and had the nation calling for its new Labour government to deliver on its manifesto promise of preventing people from being drawn towards harmful and hateful ideologies.

 

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Heeding these pleas, home secretary Yvonne Cooper has vowed to crack down on the issue, ordering a review of the country’s counter-extremism strategy to determine how best to tackle the threat posed by the radicalisation of young men on the Internet.

For some time there has been concern around incel culture – a digital movement of mainly young men who describe themselves as ‘involuntarily celibate’ and blame women and ‘alpha males’ for their problems – which was linked to the UK’s deadliest mass shooting since 2010.

The analysis will look at hatred of women as one of the ideological trends that’s gaining traction and in turn is driving the rise in extremism ‘both online and on our streets’ that Cooper says, ‘frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy.’

Intended to address gaps in the current system that leave the country exposed to hateful or harmful activity that promotes violence, officials will map and monitor extremist trends to work out how to disrupt and divert people away from them. It will also identify any gaps in existing policy and action against extremism, which has been ‘badly hollowed out.’

In fact, for close to a decade there has been no counter-extremism strategy whatsoever and a lack of a comprehensive approach or practical plans that’s leaving communities less safe.

Responding to fears that this could criminalise free speech, home office minister Jess Phillips told LBC that :‘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.’

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