CALL IT OUT

THE COURIER’S Call It Out campaign, in partnership with fellow JPIMedia sister titles, including the Yorkshire Evening Post, is sharing real life experiences of abusive online behaviour and asking readers to help play their part in reporting it to account admins, social media platforms and, where needed, the police.

We will be examining the wider issue of abuse on social media and the challenges of balancing measures to prevent it against protecting freedom of speech.

We will be speaking to people from across West Yorkshire and sharing their experiences of how they have dealt with abuse on social media to empower those who might be struggling about what to do next.

As part of our campaign we are also reviewing our own house rules on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Some of the practical steps that we will be looking at include:

● Issuing our reporters with new guidance about what language and comments cross the line when it comes to our social media channels.

● The Courier will not be afraid to issue warnings and wield the block hammer to those who continue to abuse and post derogatory comments on our Facebook page.

● Everyone needs to play a part in this. We are encouraging readers to report people on our Facebook page who are using derogatory language.

● We are calling on our MPs to legislate on the issue, making platforms more responsible for helping to prevent abusive behaviour.

● The Courier and sister titles in West Yorkshire are also calling on social media platforms to step up their efforts and give those who host pages and groups more effective tools to manage the problem.