At First Minister’s questions today, Dr Altaf Hussain MS, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice & Equalities, began by petitioning First Minister Eluned Morgan: “What actions are the Welsh Government taking to improve community cohesion?”
Calling out online hate speech, Dr Hussain cautioned against a worryingly growing trend that, “Sadly, increasing efforts are being made to sow discord between communities. When the world’s richest men took over traditional & online media, they allowed the amplification of hate speech. Not satisfied with giving Nazi salutes, the owner of X is giving a platform to far-right agitators and providing a microphone for their lies and propaganda.” Because defending deeply British values like tolerance require elected figures to talk truth to power, however wealthy or influential at this time. Previously, Dr Hussain has spoken out on anti-racism – highlighting how “It is not the overt kind that is prevalent in our nation; it is the more covert structural racism.” Disappointingly, little has changed. We must urgently start seeing meaningful progress towards this colour-blind society soon.
Continuing, Altaf argued against the prevalence of how malicious “misinformation is helping to fuel antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred and helping to drive converts to Al-Qaeda. The Stockport Slaughterer was assisted in his conversion to terror by videos the social media platforms refused to take offline.” Unfortunately, it is evident that this can create, facilitate or legitimatise in-person hate groups. Reflecting on their threat to community cohesion, Altaf argues "Patriotic Alternative" operating within Wales has harmed social solidarity. Being completely clear: Far-Right groups mustn’t be normalised like other, more mainstream political parties. Consequently, Dr Hussain queries what work Welsh Government has undertaken challenging dangerous disinformation driving divisions: incredibly important at a time when most recent (England & Wales) hate crime statistics show 25% increases in religiously-motivated hate between March 2023-2024, alongside an appalling 98,799 racially motivated offences.
Afterwards, Dr Hussain participated in a Siambr debate on Welsh Government’s Violence against Women, Domestic Abusive & Sexual Violence: strategy 2022 to 2026. Both of these topics reflect new technological threats which aren’t adequately addressed by decision-makers, fundamentally facilitating new levels of exploitation, whilst we know children, and adolescents are especially vulnerable to this. It’s important that their wellbeing’s properly prioritised, never an afterthought: “We have to crack down on Tik-Tok influencers encouraging young girls to become sex-workers by signing up to be OnlyFans models and opening themselves to sexual exploitation […] we need to prevent young boys being dragged into the "Manosphere" and misogynistic echo chambers on those very same platforms.”
