Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to counter threats of rape and sexual violence made through (a) social media networks, (b) Whatsapp and (c) Twitter.

We expect social media companies, and internet platforms, to have robust processes in place and to act promptly when abuse, including threats of rape and sexual violence, is reported. The Government continues to work closely with social media companies and other relevant actors and experts to make sure they are committed to protecting those who use their platforms.

The Criminal Justice Act 2015 strengthened two existing communications offences: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 which can now be used to prosecute misuse of social media. The police now have longer to investigate either offence, and the maximum penalty for the former has been increased to two years imprisonment.

The Crown Prosecution Service has published guidance to prosecutors this month on crimes involving social media, with a specific focus on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) offences. This includes guidance that communications that contain images or videos of women with very serious injuries, or of women being raped, or of women being subjected to sadistic acts of violence, accompanied by text that suggests that such assaults / rape / acts are acceptable or desirable may well be considered grossly offensive and prosecuted either under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 or under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

The Home Office has allocated £4.6m of the Police Transformation Fund specifically to begin the critical work of setting up a comprehensive and joined up programme of digital transformation across policing. This money will help provide a step-change in digital capability, including a Digital Investigation and Intelligence (DII) programme, which will build police capability in relation to the skills and technology required to respond to the full range of digital crime types.