Tim Bonner: Tackling extremist attacks on rural businesses

It has long been a trait of animal rights extremists that they show little, if any, compassion for human beings. In fact, it is sometimes very obvious that the motivation of a significant part of the movement is a hatred of people rather than a love of animals, even if this is something they themselves cannot recognise. I often wonder at the mental journey that apparently starts with concern about animals and ends by digging up a grave or posting relentless vile online abuse.

The internet and social media have created spaces for activists to vent that hatred and one particularly nasty tactic is the targeting of businesses connected even tenuously to hunting, shooting and livestock farming with fake reviews on sites like TripAdvisor and Google. Over many years the Alliance has helped dozens of rural businesses which have been the subject of organised campaigns encouraging activists to post fake, malicious reviews of pubs, restaurants and other businesses pretending to be legitimate reports on the quality of the businesses’ services. The reviewers have usually never been anywhere near the businesses they are attacking, but getting reviews removed from such sites is a complicated process and, in the meantime, the fake reviews can have a serious impact on the reputation of targeted businesses, as well as to the mental health of the people who run them.

The Government is legislating to make the internet a safer place and its Online Safety Bill is currently in the House of Lords. One of the Bill’s measures will create a new offence of ‘False Communications’ which will make it unlawful to tell lies online that harm people. The Alliance is supportive of that intention, however, as the Bill currently stands whilst it would be an offence to post a false message intending to cause psychological or physical harm, posting false information with the intention of causing financial harm or reputational damage would not be criminalised.

We think this is an oversight which could be simply corrected with support from all sides in the House of Lords. Baroness Buscombe, who we are extremely grateful to, has tabled amendments which we believe would ensure that posting malicious reviews will become an offence that can readily be prosecuted.

In order to get the Government to accept our amendments it is very important that Ministers understand the justified concerns so many of you have about such ideologically motivated campaigns against businesses and accepts the amendments. We are therefore calling on you to take action by writing to your MPs and asking them to contact Michelle Donelan who is the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

This is a very straightforward process which will only take a couple of minutes, but it could make a huge difference for businesses which are targeted by extremists.