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Hate crime laws do not protect disabled

This news post is about 5 years old
 

MPs have said more must be done to prevent online abuse of the disabled, following a petition led by Katie Price

Laws are not fit to prevent disabled people from online abuse, politicians have asserted.

Following a petition led by Katie Price, MPs have said they want the government to give disabled people better protection under hate crime laws.

More than 220,000 people supported the model’s demand to make online abuse a criminal offence after she flagged up trolling about her son Harvey's disabilities.

The committee launched an inquiry in response to the petition, which was closed early due to the 2017 general election.

Reality TV star Price, a mother-of-five, told the MPs in evidence that "the most horrific things" had been said about 16-year-old Harvey, who is partially blind, autistic and has the genetic disorder Prader-Willi syndrome.

"They know he hasn't got a voice back and they mock him more... they find him an easy target," she said.

After hearing from disabled people how online abuse could destroy careers, social lives and cause lasting damage to people's health, the MPs made a string of recommendations in a report published this week.

Committee chair, Helen Jones MP, said: “Our inquiry into online abuse and the experience of disabled people has shown that social media is rife with horrendous, degrading and dehumanising comments about disabled people. The law on online abuse is not fit for purpose and it is truly shameful that disabled people have been forced off social media while their abusers face no consequences.

“There is no excuse for the continued failure to make online platforms as safe for disabled people as non-disabled people. Self-regulation has failed disabled people and the law must change to ensure more lives are not destroyed.”

Recommendations made included the government and social media companies having to directly consult disabled people on digital strategy and hate crime law, for proportionate representation of disabled people in government advertising to be introduced and that social media companies accept responsibility for allowing toxic environments to exist unchallenged.