By Gabriel Princewill And James Simons
The Mayor of London and Google have merged forces to fund grass roots counter-terror work in the wake of November’s London Bridge attack.
Sadiq Khan has come up with an £800,000 fund , split with both City Hall and Google(the Mayor and google produced £400k each) to invest in community groups that tackle violent extremism and hate crime.
The investment will partly be used to address hate-fuelled attacks in London which have risen almost a third in the past four years, with more than 25,000 offences reported in 2019. The timing of the funding is crucial because of Brexit which occurs at the end of this month. Over 180 prospective agencies attended yesterday, including a strategic information dialogue team.
Khan’s team told The Eye Of Media.Com that they will be using a ”strategic information dialogue team rooted in grassroots and community groups to strengthen confidence across all communities in reporting hate crime”.
His team also aims to develop ways to prevent offences and reduce repeat victimisation, with a focus of collaboration amongst agencies in working together to ensure swift and sure justice for victims
The Mayor said he wants to maximise the open, diverse and inclusive values that unite Londoners by acknowledging and celebrating their differences.
ATTACKS
The Mayor Of London says racist attacks in the U.k accounted for over 17,000 offences last year, with homophobic attacks up 60 per cent to almost 3,000 last year. Transphobic hate crime nearly doubled to 287 offences.
Anti-Semitic attacks shot up by nearly 40 per cent to 632 offences last year, Islamophobic attacks were up 10 per cent to 1,172 – but are now falling – and other faith hate crimes rose by a third to 2,293 incidents.
He wants local organisations with a drive to address the problem to bid for up to £50,000 through the Mayor’s new programme. Khan has a mammoth task on his hands and will be relying on a strong network to address hate crime and extremism.
At a launch event at Google’s headquarters on Tuesday, the Mayor attacked the “scourge” of intolerance which he said “has absolutely no place” in London.
He said: “Sadly, we have also too often seen extremism on our streets with the horrific terror attack in London Bridge in November last year, as well as homophobic, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents.
“We know that leaving the EU will raise tensions and bring new challenges – that is why it is so vital we empower our communities to help deliver change now.
“Violent extremism is one of the biggest threats facing London and our country.
“We simply must do better at working together to safeguard the vulnerable and stop people from promoting these vile ideologies with such horrific consequences.”
Rowan Barnett, head of Google’s philanthropic branch, said tackling extremism online was his “top priority” and he was pleased to support the new programme.
He said: “We believe communities and grassroots programmes are an incredibly important part of the effort to encourage collaboration, cooperation, and sensitivity across London.”
The Mayor says that all tech firms need to do more to ensure their platforms and tools are not used to promote hate and intolerance or raise funds for extremism. He added that flagging harmful content on social media platforms needs to be made easier and it needs to be spotted and removed faster.
NETWORK
The Mayor said he is also launching a new network of civil society groups who wish to stand up to hate and extremism. Groups will be invited to join and benefit from free capacity-building opportunities and best practice information sharing, irrespective of how successful they are in bidding for this fund.
Sadiq’s funding is on top of the £6m he has already invested in tackling all forms of hate – more than any other Mayor – and is the next phase of his Countering Violent Extremism programme, set up in 2017.
Sadiq Khan added: “Extremism, intolerance and hate crime of any kind has absolutely no place in our city and I have worked closely with the police and all communities across London as we battle against this scourge.
“Sadly, we have also too often seen extremism on our streets with the horrific terror attack in London Bridge in November last year – as well as homophobic, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents. We know that leaving the EU will raise tensions and bring new challenges – that is why it is so vital we empower our communities to help deliver change now.
“Violent extremism is one of the biggest threats facing London and our country. We simply must simply do better at working together to safeguard the vulnerable and stop people from promoting these vile ideologies with such horrific consequences.”
Rowan Barnett, Head of Google.org, EMEA & APAC added: “Keeping the online community safe is our top priority. As part of this commitment, Google.org supports solutions that fight hate and extremism at a local level which help foster positive change in the UK.
We believe communities and grassroots programmes are an incredibly important part of the effort to encourage collaboration, cooperation, and sensitivity across London. We are pleased to support the Shared Endeavour Fund to tackle extremism and hate in our capital and look forward to working closely with the Mayor of London and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.”