North East leaders call for misogyny to be “stamped out” and online hate to be challenged following riots
North East leaders have backed a government review to “stamp out” misogyny and treat it as a form of extremism, particularly in the light of recent UK-wide riots.
The North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Susan Dungworth have both come out in support of a Home Office review into the UK’s counter-extremism strategy, which will include extreme misogyny. The review, commissioned by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, will also focus on far-right and Islamist extremism as well as the radicalisation of young people on and offline.
Both regional figures pointed to the recent riots across the country as examples of how misinformation and online hate can lead to serious real-world consequences and the importance of early intervention. Rioting ravaged communities across the country, including Sunderland and Hartlepool, following the fatal stabbing of three children in Southport, Merseyside, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29.
Much of the violence has been attributed to misinformation on social media, falsely claiming the perpetrator of the killings to be an asylum seeker. The Cardiff-born teenager Axel Muganwa Rudakubana has been charged with the murder of the three children along with 10 other counts of attempted murder.
At the time of writing, more than 1,000 people have since been arrested in connection to the riots with over 470 charged.
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: “Recent events have shown how hatred and division stirred up online can spill over into real and targeted violence and abuse, often facilitated by unaccountable and distant social media companies.
“As someone who faces misogynistic abuse online on a daily basis, I’m clear no women and girls should be put in this position. I welcome the Government’s announcement to stamp out this hatred: we need to send an unequivocal message misogyny has no place in the North East and is not unacceptable in modern Britain.”
In her previous role as Northumbria PCC in 2023, Kim McGuinness rolled out ‘active bystander training, to help combat sexual harassment and misogynist abuse faced by women while in public. Figures from the office of the PCC show
The incumbent PCC Susan Dungworth added: “Violence against women and girls, whether in the home, online or on our streets, is absolutely unacceptable, and we must work to ensure that young people are aware of the dangers of consuming the radicalised and harmful content in which we’ve seen an increase of online recently.
“This is about working with education, and other early intervention services, to identify when young people are being exposed to these ideologies, and educating those about why this is so harmful, and the daily fears that women have as a result. Identifying and managing this issue at the earliest stage is the only way to prevent it from embedding within our culture and communities.
“Recent events have shown how easily groups can be influenced and encouraged via online messaging, so we must ensure our young people have the knowledge and support to identify what is acceptable and what isn’t, and where to get support should they require it.”