Tim Bonner: Tackling animal rights extremism and online abuse

Last month the government published its Online Safety Bill which it claims is "a milestone in the fight for a new digital age which is safer for users and holds tech giants to account".

Farmers, gamekeepers, huntsmen and many others in the rural community who have been the targets of online hate campaigns might not be holding their breath, but the Alliance will ensure that their voices are heard as the Bill goes through parliament.

The Alliance has campaigned for protection against online bullying and harassment over many years. When we last carried out a survey of the rural community, we found that 62% of respondents reported having experienced online bullying for supporting activities like shooting and hunting, 78% believed the problem was getting worse year and 89% of businesses said they had received online abuse. Half of the respondents said that online abuse had caused them to change their behaviour on social media. We also recently carried out a survey in connection with the EFRA Committee's inquiry into rural mental health in which 30% of respondents reported that they, or people they know, have suffered a negative mental health impact as a result of bullying, including online bullying.

There are, therefore, three issues in particular that the Alliance is keen to ensure are dealt with in the new legislation.

Firstly, encouragement or incitement of both criminal and harmful online activity including the secondary targeting of businesses. Animal rights activists, including some working for registered charities, have long run campaigns encouraging aggressive online activity targeting companies associated with farmers involved in the badger cull, shoots and hunts amongst others. In recent years negative reviews of pubs and restaurants on sites like Tripadvisor from people who have never set foot in those establishments have also become a common tool of extremists.

Secondly, the legislation needs to address the elephant in the room which is anonymity. As long as people are able to set up social media accounts with nothing more than a Gmail address and a pre-paid mobile phone some will post abuse and lies with impunity. As with the wearing of face coverings offline, the ability to be anonymous online drives unacceptable and unlawful behaviour. Unless the legislation addresses this, the offences it creates will be compromised from the start.

Thirdly, whatever the legislation that is passed, it must be enforced without fear or favour. The appalling online racist abuse directed at England footballers after the European Championship final last year quite rightly saw police and social media providers acting swiftly to identify and prosecute offenders. The conviction and in some cases imprisonment of these offenders should be a benchmark for how online abuse should be investigated and prosecuted. A dairy farmer being targeted with death threats by vegan extremists may not have the fame of an international footballer, but the behaviour is also illegal and needs to be pursued just as vigorously.

To make the case for effective legislation to the government and MPs we need your help in updating our research and gathering case studies to illustrate the impact that online abuse can have on rural communities. Please fill in our survey, which should only take about five minutes of your time, and pass on your experiences.