Jeremy Corbyn has said his leadership campaign is working hard to prevent any supporters from targeting opponents via social media, declaring that online abuse must be dealt with.
Speaking at the launch of his digital democracy manifesto, which sets out policies including a push for nationwide access to fast broadband and mobile connectivity, the Labour leader was asked why this did not include any specific commitments to combat online abuse.
During the leadership campaign, Corbyn has faced calls to take more action against online insults and threats, especially those targeting female Labour MPs.
Corbyn’s team says abuse and harassment is covered in a part of the digital manifesto connected to a “people’s charter of digital liberties”, and the leader said he was committed to tackling it.
“It is appalling,” he said. “I have set up a code of conduct on this. The Labour party has a code of conduct on this, and it does have to be dealt with.
“Everyone should learn that when they put something on Facebook or Twitter or online in an email, that is exactly the same as if you’d put it in the print media in any other way, with exactly the same protective laws of libel or slander.
“Many people use instant access to Twitter more or less like they’re continuing a pub conversation, and deeply regret the abuse that they sent to people at that time. Unfortunately, it’s there for eternity, in some way or another, on the internet. And so there does have to be quite strict codes of conduct.
“There also has to be an educative process about how people do things. I absolutely will not allow any sort of it, whatsoever, anywhere around our campaign. We do chase it down and we do stop it. And we will continue to do that, because it’s simply wrong.”
More widely, Corbyn said he was worried about the use of social media among some young people to carry out mass bullying. “You wouldn’t gather around a young person and all shout abuse at them,” he said. “That would be seen to be crude, brutal, violent and rude. But they do it on Facebook and they do it on Twitter and they do it online.”
Speaking in east London, Corbyn unveiled a series of ideas to “democratise the internet”, including an online learning hub; publicly funded software and hardware to help teach programming; a voluntary “digital citizen passport” to create a secure portable identity; and more use of technology to debate and devise legislation.
Corbyn said the plans would “rebuild and transform Britain so that no one and no community is left behind”.
In parallel, the Labour leader said new technology could transform the party’s election chances, saying he would use innovations pioneered in his leadership campaign against Owen Smith, such as a digital phone canvassing app which allows volunteers to make calls from anywhere, whenever possible.
The phone bank app was devised by a group called Coders for Corbyn. They have released a “toolkit” for volunteers to spread the message, including a database of Corbyn-themed emojis, called “Jeremojis”, and a Twitter tool to automatically block fake accounts purporting to be those of Corbyn supporters.
Corbyn said some of his strategy was based on the campaign of Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator built a similarly energised support base in challenging for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Corbyn said the fact Sanders eventually lost to Hillary Clinton did not mean valuable lessons could not be learned.
“The Bernie Sanders campaign was amazing in the number of people who attended rallies, the number of people who were mobilised, and the fact he was totally counterintuitive to the whole norm of US politics, which is to appeal to the base that votes and to appeal to the interests of those voters that actually take part,” he said.
“What the Bernie Sanders campaign did was to energise a whole lot of people – in a sense, the way that Barack Obama did in 2008 – by broadening the electoral base, and involving very large numbers of people, and he did that by a combination of digital technology and public rally appearances all over the country.
“No, he didn’t win the nomination, that we fully understand. But he’s changed the Democratic party a great deal. The presidential platform on which Hillary Clinton is fighting the election is radically different compared to what it would have been had she not faced the challenge of Bernie Sanders.”
Corbyn said he had enjoyed “long discussions with many people” in the Sanders campaign, saying it had transformed US politics. “It is a genie that cannot be put back in the bottle,” he said.
With leadership ballot papers due to be sent out in the next few days before voting, which closes on 21 September, both Corbyn and Smith have been touring the country and announcing policy initiatives.
Corbyn has made announcements on the arts, education and transport. Smith has given pledges on policies for young people, Brexit and the NHS. The victor – Corbyn remains the bookmakers’ favourite – will be announced at the annual party conference on 24 September.
