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Mending the net

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22 November 2018 / John Tanburn
Issue: 7818 / Categories: Features , Technology , In Court
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​Is it time for a specialist IT court to tackle torts committed online? John Tanburn weighs up the evidence

  • A specialised IT division of the High Court and technically-enabled county courts are needed to address torts committed online.
  • Court structure after Brexit needs to be determined now.

Torts are committed with impunity on the web: driving children to suicide, shredding reputations, threatening death and rape, leaving victims without redress. The law has always provided remedies against such torts, but has so far failed to do so when they are committed online. This will not do. The very credibility of the law is at stake unless its rule extends to the web, where many people live their working and social lives.

In the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA 2016) and the Digital Economy Act 2017, the government has taken enormous powers in the name of tackling ‘extremism’ (which can mean anything the government does not like). With rather less resources, the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) seeks to tackle online crime. But nothing has yet

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