Steve Rotheram MP

Steve Rotheram MP is Labour MP for Liverpool Walton. On the CMS Select Committee.

Online harassment

I broadly support the Defamation Bill, especially clause 5, which the right hon. and learned Gentleman is explaining. Can he give any comfort to the parents of Georgia Varley, a Liverpool youngster who was tragically killed and whose family and friends set up an RIP website, which trolls then used to abuse and disparage her death in a sickening and vile way? Can he outline specifically the proposals to tackle such abuse by internet trolls who hide behind the anonymity of a computer to abuse those remembered on RIP websites?

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans his Department has to extend the imprisonment term for people found guilty of breaching section 127(3) of the Communications Act 2003.

Communications Data Bill

Written Question on 18/09/2012

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the implications for individual privacy of the draft Communications Data Bill.

Written Question on 18/09/2012

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what safeguards she proposes to introduce in the Communications Bill to ensure the privacy of (a) e-mails and (b) text messages.To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what safeguards she proposes to introduce in the Communications Bill to ensure the privacy of (a) e-mails and (b) text messages.

Internet Trolling

In September 2012 Steve Rotheram initiated an adjournment debate on internet trolling. Participants included Nadine Dorries MP, Jeremy Browne MP and Jim Shannon MP. Rotheram argued that

Trolling is wide-ranging and stirs up strong feelings, among people who want it criminalised and want those who indulge in it to be jailed, and among those who believe it is their inherent right to indulge in—as they see it—a bit of banter, and who claim that freedom of speech is one of their human rights, whether or not it causes offence. It should be noted that the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country, and that right is commonly subject to limitations ... the solution may or may not take the form of legislation, but if a change in the law is required, so be it. In that spirit, I am grateful to the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department for meeting me at the end of last year. Since then, I have met, among others, Nadine Dorries, representatives from Merseyside police, Facebook and the Crown Prosecution Service. Although some of those meetings were less productive than others, there was universal recognition that trolling exists, and that it is grossly offensive and it is escalating. With such a rise in prominence has come greater scrutiny of the laws that govern its practice and punishment. The starting point must be to see how we can improve the way trolling is prevented, policed and punished. That would be preferable to trying to get Parliament to act, as the wheels of justice turn slowly.

Links

http://steverotherammp.org.uk/