Voice of Jewish News: the antisemitism Ofcom can’t touch – will the government act?

Last month, a UK based TV channel, Al Hiwar, ran a segment during which a guest was allowed to spew vile antisemitism, parroting the blood libel about Jews murdering people and using their blood to make Matza. What is more, Ofcom, which regulates TV channels, will do nothing about it.

Why will the regulator not act? Because, as Jewish News has reported, there is a loophole in the law. If Al-Hiwar had broadcast their hate via satellite, it would be subject to Ofcom. But if they upload the footage onto their social media channels instead – which is what they did – then this is not deemed to be within the regulator’s domain. A CST report last year into Al-Hiwar’s conduct diagnosed this exact issue, correctly described it as ‘nonsensical’. Be that as it may, this farcical situation, reminiscent of the time when Britain tried to differentiate between the ‘political’ and ‘military’ wings of Hamas and Hezbollah, continues.

It is no secret that the UK, along with many other Western countries, has struggled with the issue of how to effectively regulate online spaces. Successive governments have grappled with the need to combat online hatred and misinformation, while trying to avoid measures that would risk mass-censorship and surveillance.

Fortunately, in this case, there should be no such difficulties. All that the government – any government – would need to do is to extend Ofcom’s purview to include all video content disseminated by such channels, whether via terrestrial TV, satellite TV or social media platforms.

However, an additional layer of uncertainty here may well have been caused by the rather awkward split between government departments. Media is in the realm of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, but social media is within the purview of the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. The grey area between the two may well have contributed to the current situation.

Within the next few weeks, it appears highly likely we will have a new Prime Minister, with an inevitable cabinet reshuffle as a result. While this issue is unlikely to be at the very top of Andy Burnham’s to-do list, whoever he appoints to those two cabinet positions should seek to work together to resolve the problem. Failure to do so will mean turning a blind eye to media channels, based in this country, spewing the most grotesque forms of antisemitic propaganda.