A new Law that makes online abuse punishable with strict consequences · petition

What the petition asks

Government should debate and introduce a law should enable authorities to track People that are abusive and racist online via their IP address. Once the offender is found, a punishment should consist of a criminal offence on their record, a jail term or community service.

Online abuse or “trolling” has increased year on year and its becoming more and more impactful on normal everyday people and our Athletes. In light of the recent Euro 2020 competition where Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho received particularly horrifying abuse and racism it’s gotten to a point where it’s gone from too far to one of the biggest crises of the modern era. Enforcing a law like this will show the offending persons there are consequences to their actions.

Why it was rejected

The UK Government or Parliament was already taking the action it asked for.

There are already a number of offences that cover online abuse. You can read about these here: https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/social-media-guidelines-prosecuting-cases-involving-communications-sent-social-media

We have published the following petitions, which you might like to sign:

Produce and enforce a zero-tolerance strategy to end racism on social media: Produce and enforce a zero-tolerance strategy to end racism on social media

Require social media platforms’ terms of use to prohibit racism and hate speech: Require social media platforms’ terms of use to prohibit racism and hate speech

Increase legal penalties for those convicted of online racial abuse: Increase legal penalties for those convicted of online racial abuse

Social media companies to be held accountable for racially abusive posts: Social media companies to be held accountable for racially abusive posts

Timeline

12 Jul 2021	Petition opened for signatures
19 Jul 2021	Rejected by the Petitions Committee