Director of Public Prosecutions; Alison Saunders says the Crown Prosecution Service will seek penalties for online hate crimes that equalise those given for face-to-face abuse.
Today CPS announces it’s plans to prosecute more social media hate after revising it’s guidance for prosecutors.
Online abuse has been said to be equally as devastating as shouting it.
A hate crime is an offence motivated by hostility towards people’s differences; including their race, religion, sexuality, gender or disability.
For the first time the guidance includes offences against those who identify as bisexual.
This move by Saunders will hopefully set out more clearly what victims and witnesses can expect from the law.
Exceptions may be made in the case of children who may not understand the harm they have caused by publishing something online.
Since December 2014, Scotland’s Crown Office gave their prosecutors guidance concerning online abuse saying that if it is illegal to say on the street it is illegal to say online.
