As a business owner, you have likely enjoyed the various opportunities and challenges the digital age posed for your business. On the one hand, it is now simple to reach the global market with little effort. On the other hand, with greater accessibility (and anonymity) comes the increasing challenge of policing your website for aggressive and abusive visitors. This article will consider whether your UK business is legally obliged to immediately ban site users from spreading hate speech. As you will see, this topic involves various grey areas with competing definitions of what is considered \u2018hate speech\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)<\/a> and UK police treat \u2018hate speech\u2019 as a criminal offence. Hate speech includes verbal abuse and online harassment<\/a> by online abusers. Specifically, the definition of hate speech includes abusive or hostile comments relating to any of the following characteristics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, the definition of \u2018abusive or hostile\u2019 can be a slightly grey area. Whilst unpleasant and morally unacceptable comments are easy to identify, UK businesses can struggle to determine when such statements cross the line and become \u2018hate speech\u2019. As a result, many CPS lawyers spend much time debating this question in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The usual guidance is to seek to remove and act upon any aggressive, hostile or abusive comments regarding these topics. This is the case regardless of whether the comments can be classified as hate speech, \u2018hate motivated\u2019 or online abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three main ways hate speech can end up on your website or social media platforms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The least common is that your company posts hate speech itself. Naturally, no self-respecting business will intentionally post hate speech online. However, some businesses (particularly clothing brands) have accidentally stocked products that contain subtle, derogatory comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a few years ago, a fashion website encountered issues after selling clothing items with racist wording. The business immediately pulled the product upon realising the hard-to-read message but still suffered unavoidable reputational damage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n The second way for hate speech to infiltrate your website and social media channels is through individuals posting inappropriate messages through comments on social media posts or the comment or customer review sections of your website. Accordingly, many companies employ an online moderator to quickly identify and remove abusive and unacceptable comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, the third way is for hackers and cybercriminals<\/a> to gain access to your website coding or social media sites and post abusive and hate-inspired messaging. Unfortunately, cyber-attacks of this nature are becoming more common and act to remind UK businesses to ensure robust cyber security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Continue reading this article below the form\n <\/i>\n<\/a>\n\n
Hate Speech On My Company\u2019s Website<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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