Hate Speech & Hate Crime
What is a hate crime?
The National Police Chiefs' Council True Vision website defines hate crime as any crime that targets a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person's:
- disability
- race or ethnicity
- religion or belief
- sexual orientation
- transgender identity
Hate crimes can be committed against a person or property. A victim does not have to be a member of the group at which the hostility is targeted. In fact, anyone could be a victim of a hate crime.
Are hate crimes allowed on social media?
Hate crime is not tolerated on most commonly used social networking sites and reporting links can be found below.
However, all have varying policies around what is and isn’t allowed. For example, when someone expresses an opinion about a person or group of people, the person or people they are talking about may find this opinion hateful and hurtful, but the person saying it might not intend it to be.
When we talk about hate speech it’s hard not to get confused with ignorance, and that’s why it is all about the intent of the person saying it. This can often make it very difficult for online platforms to decide whether something should be removed.
What is hate speech?
Hate speech is also considered a hate crime and should be reported to your local police on 101. In the UK there is a dedicated reporting platform for this kind of content: True Vision. True Vision are experts at determining if something is a hate crime and have developed an online facility to report hate crimes for individuals who do not want to go to the police.
