The UK’s approach to extremism should be based on concerning behaviours and activity rather than ideologies, according to a leaked Home Office review.
These include spreading misinformation, influencing racism, and involvement in “an online subculture called the manosphere”, according to the Policy Exchange thinktank, which obtained a copy of the review.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in August she had directed the Home Office to conduct a “rapid analytical sprint on extremism” to map and monitor trends and inform the government’s approach.
The leaked report recommends reversing a code of practice to limit the number of “non-crime hate incidents” being recorded and floats the idea of creating a new crime of making “harmful communications” online, according to Policy Exchange.
It says claims of “two-tier” policing are an example of a “right-wing extremist narrative”.
The thinktank said the review lists “behaviours and activity of concern” and “damaging extremist beliefs” including misogyny, violence against women and girls and having a “fixation on gore and violence without adherence to an extremist ideology”.
It also lists “spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories”, “influencing racism and intolerance” and involvement in an “online subculture called the manosphere”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The counter-extremism sprint sought to comprehensively assess the challenge facing our country and lay the foundations for a new approach to tackling extremism – so we can stop people being drawn towards hateful ideologies.
“This includes tackling Islamism and extreme right-wing ideologies, which are the most prominent today.
“The findings from the sprint have not been formally agreed by ministers and we are considering a wide range of potential next steps arising from that work.”
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