UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a review of the United Kingdom’s counterterrorism strategy on how to best tackle threats by “extremist ideologies” including misogyny.
Other ideological trends to be investigated by the Home Office include “Islamism” and far-right “extremism”.
Cooper said the strategy will “map and monitor extremist trends” and gauge how to direct people away from them.
Around 460 people have so far appeared in magistrates’ courts relating to UK-wide riots in late July and early August that were sparked by disinformation regarding the suspect in a knife attack in Southport, Sky News reported.
At least 72 people under the age of 18 are believed to have been charged.
Several were charged for publishing material that contributed to the riots, including publishing written material to stir up racial hatred.
While the riots were primarily instigated by far-right provocateurs, many of these figures have also doubled up in the past and peddled misogyny.
One social media influencer blamed for spreading false information about incidents that led to the riots is Andrew Tate, who is regularly accused of advancing messaging that is prejudiced against women.
Misogyny goes beyond just words, and physical violence against women is still widespread in the UK, with a woman killed by a man every three days, according to the campaign group Femicide Census.
The rise in misogyny has also been linked to “incel” culture, referring to people – usually men – who call themselves “involuntarily celibate”, and take out their anger on women and wider society.
Jake Davison, 22, killed five people in Plymouth in 2021 before fatally shooting himself, in an incident that was linked to incel ideology.
“For too long, governments have failed to address the rise in extremism, both online and on our streets, and we’ve seen the number of young people radicalised online grow,” Cooper, who is part of the UK’s new Labour government, said.
“That’s why I have directed the Home Office to conduct a rapid analytical sprint on extremism, to map and monitor extremist trends, to understand the evidence about what works to disrupt and divert people away from extremist views, and to identify any gaps in existing policy which need to be addressed to crack down on those pushing harmful and hateful beliefs and violence.”
The review is meant to form a new counter-extremism strategy for the UK. Cooper has previously criticised the previous Conservative government on the issue, saying that its strategy had lacked practical plans.
