We want to turn the tide against online Jew-hate

► THIS WEEK was an important one in the fight against vile online antisemitism.

Anti-Jewish discrimination has existed for millennia, but as countless readers of this paper will unfortunately know, that age-old bile has found a new lease of life on the internet.

Jewish people routinely find themselves subjected to hateful posts and poisonous conspiracy theories on Twitter, Facebook and beyond. Labour MP Margaret Hodge says she was bombarded with 90,000 abusive tweets in just two months. And as we saw with the Wiley incident earlier this year, too often, online platforms take too long to remove that hateful content or ban abusive trolls from their sites. Now, though, they will be forced to act.

This week, the government became one of the first in the world to announce a comprehensive regime for online safety — binding social media companies to a new legal duty of care. If they fail to protect their users from harmful content, including antisemitism, companies will face steep fines of up to £18 million, or 10 per cent of annual global turnover — whichever is highest.

Antisemitic hate crimes will have to removed from platforms without delay. Companies will have to respond to complaints quickly, and the biggest companies will be required to publish annual transparency reports to track their progress. If they are found to be dragging their feet, they will face the legal consequences.

At the same time we are working to make sure the law is fit to tackle digital crimes. A recent review by my department and the Law Commission found that it needed updating to cover online abuse, including coordinated harassment by groups of people — aka “pile-ons”. The Law Commission is set to provide its final recommendations for action early in the New Year, and we will carefully consider whether we should use our forthcoming Online Harms legislation to bring those recommendations into law.

As MP for Hertsmere, I’m proud to represent one of the largest Jewish communities in the country. Under our proposals, they and every other person in the UK will be safer when they log on.

Platforms take too long to remove the hateful content