Trolls could face two years in prison for sending messages or posting content that causes psychological harm under legislation targeting online hate.
Ministers will overhaul communication laws by creating new offences in the forthcoming Online Safety Bill, the flagship legislation to combat abuse and hatred on the internet.
The Department for Culture, Media & Sport has accepted recommendations from the Law Commission for crimes to be based on “likely psychological harm”.
The proposed law change will shift the focus on to the “harmful effect” of a message rather than if it contains “indecent” or “grossly offensive” content, which is the present basis for assessing its criminality.
A new offence of “threatening communications” will target messages and social media posts that contain threats of serious harm. It would be an offence where somebody intends a victim to fear the threat will be carried out.
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A “knowingly false communication” offence will be created that will criminalise those who send or post a message they know to be false with the intention to cause “emotional, psychological, or physical harm to the likely audience”. Government sources gave the example of antivaxers spreading false information that they know to be untrue.
The new offences will include sol-called “pile-ons” where a number of individuals join others in sending harassing messages to a victim on social media.
The Times was told that the plans had been sent to cabinet for approval. Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, is intending to add them to the bill when it is introduced to parliament next month, government sources said.
The move is likely to be met with resistance from freedom of speech campaigners and civil libertarians.
David Davis, a former cabinet minister, said assessing based on the impact it has on the receiver was too subjective and urged the government to rethink the proposals, especially given it has hailed the legislation as “world-leading”. Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said the new harm-based offences were too broad.
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A government spokesman said: “We are making our laws fit for the digital age. Our comprehensive Online Safety Bill will make tech companies responsible for people’s safety and we are carefully considering the Law Commission’s recommendations on strengthening criminal offences.”
Tool tackles online abuse
Players are being urged by the Football Association to use new social media tools to shield themselves from online abuse — particularly if they make on-field errors (Ross Kaniuk writes).
Any player — or member of the public — who experiences or expects abuse on Instagram can use a new feature called Limits. It allows users to still receive comments and messages from long-standing followers but can limit contact from new followers and anonymous trolls.
Another feature, Hidden Words, can censor certain words from appearing under posts. The tools are being launched in the wake of racist abuse aimed at England stars such as Bukayo Saka after the Euros.
