UK to classify online misogyny as a threat to national security

In the UK, in the digital age, it will no longer be sufficient to treat violence against women as ‘just’ a criminal offence – it will likely be elevated to the level of terrorism and a threat to national security.

The terms extreme misogyny and violence against women are used interchangeably in reports on the initiative by Labor Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Cooper has ordered a review of the country’s strategy to counter extremism, adding violence against women, or “extreme misogyny,” to a list of issues including Islamist, far-right, Northern Irish extremism, animal rights and the environment, according to the British press.

Explaining her plans, Cooper said the measure was long overdue and blamed the internet in particular – as she put it, the online radicalisation of young people.

This specifically concerns ‘radicalised teenage boys’ who are believed to be falling prey en masse to ‘woman-hating influencers’.

And while the Home Office does include “incel” among the forms of extremism it monitors, “officials now fear that the category is missing other forms of extreme misogyny,” the Telegraph reports.

The UK has something called Prevent, a programme that authorities say focuses on early intervention to protect people from terrorism, and it also works “in a similar way to programmes designed to protect people from other harms such as gangs, drug abuse and physical and sexual abuse.”

But now it turns out that those ‘similar programmes’, which cover other ills than terrorism, are not enough to tackle violence against women. If Cooper’s plan goes ahead, teachers, health workers and local authorities will have to report their concerns to Prevent under the heading of terrorism.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley previously said violence against women and girls “must be treated as a threat to national security”, the article said.

Cooper’s initiative comes as the UK is grappling with large-scale protests and riots, with the new government blaming social media communications in particular. It responded by arresting hundreds of people, including for that activity.

Another idea from the interior minister is to crack down on those who “promote harmful and hateful beliefs.” One such idea is what Cooper’s office calls a “fixation on violence.”

At this point, it is unclear whether this is a case of a politician feeling compelled to appear to be doing something in the wake of unrest that has exposed long-simmering problems in society – or whether the “new approach to countering extremism” will yield practical measures.

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