Hate crime laws too broad to snare extremists, experts say

ISLAMISTS and far-right extremists are operating with “virtual impunity” because of gaps in Britain’s laws, according to Sara Khan, the Government’s counter-extremist commissioner.

In an exclusive joint article for The Daily Telegraph online, Ms Khan and Sir Mark Rowley, the former head of counter-terrorism policing, share their thoughts on how to combat “hateful extremism”.

Sir Mark is to head a review of current legislation after a commission report found efforts to combat extremism were failing because the Government’s definition of it was so broad. There have been just nine prosecutions for racist or religious hate crimes in a year.

Sir Mark and Ms Khan said the material they had seen in their careers was “nothing short of horrifying” with people celebrating the murder of MPS and suicide bombings, encouraging attacks on places of worship or spreading jihadist or neo-nazi propaganda.

They warned the way social media giants have developed their business models has acted to increase the reach and impact of extremists.

“Online extremism is enabled and magnified by the structural make-up of social media platforms and their algorithms have amplified and help propagate extremist content to an

‘When they incite hatred extremists know they can easily steer around our current terror laws’

unprecedented number of people in an unprecedented way,” they said.

“But when they incite hatred or justify violence against others drawing on hostile or supremacist beliefs, extremists know that they can easily steer around current incitement or counterterror legislation. Far Right and Islamist extremists therefore continue to operate with virtual impunity in our country both online and offline.”