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<p>Islamophobia is completely unacceptable and has no place in our society. The Online
Harms White Paper sets out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK
the safest place in the world to be online, by making companies more responsible for
their users’ safety online. We will establish in law a new duty of care on companies
towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. Companies will be held
to account for tackling a comprehensive set of online harms, and hate crime is one
of the harms in scope of these proposals. We will continue to work closely with the
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which has the cross-government
lead on countering Islamophobia, as this policy is developed.</p><p> </p><p>It is
also important that the criminal law is fit for purpose to deal with online harms.
The Law Commission has recently started the second phase of its review of abusive
and offensive online communications, which will review existing communications offences
and make specific recommendations about options for legal reform in a final report
in 2021. In parallel, the Law Commission is looking into the adequacy of protection
offered by hate crime legislation, and this strand of work is expected to report in
2020.</p><p> </p>
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