The scale of hatred towards Jews expressed online can feel overwhelming. This is particularly true of anyone subjected to abuse by nameless trolls. They use their anonymity as a veil, vilifying, attacking and inciting from behind it, confident that they cannot be identified or held to account and leaving powerless victims with no recourse.
Oscar-nominated Jewish writer Lee Kern was one such victim. He contacted us three years ago after an anonymous pro-Corbyn troll harassed him with antisemitic messages, calling for another Holocaust, calling him “Shylock”, speaking of Jews being used for gun practice, calling Jewish women whores, sharing deranged sexual fantasies involving Hitler and glorifying the antisemitic genocidal terror organisation, Hamas. He too believed that he could get away with it all by hiding behind his anonymity.
He, and other abusers like him, were right. Until now.
Earlier this week, a years-long effort by Campaign Against Antisemitism to unmask this anonymous troll and then secure a prosecution and conviction against him bore fruit. This effort, spearheaded by the esteemed solicitor and CAA honorary patron Mark Lewis, who represented Lee, establishes a game-changing precedent that lifts the veil of anonymity and enables victims like Lee to achieve justice.
Over several years, we piloted a multi-stage legal technique that makes innovative use of a type of court order which originated in the pharmaceutical industry in 1974.
First, we obtained a court order requiring a technology company to unmask the anonymous antisemitic troll for the purposes of civil action. This required us to bring a case against one of the UK’s major internet service providers, which we won, enabling us to uncover the identity of the troll, Nicholas Nelson. This unusual order has never been acquired in the case of an antisemite like him before.
Second, once we unmasked Nelson, we were able to obtain information enabling a criminal prosecution to be brought against him, instead of a civil action – something that we believe has also never been done before. This was important because court orders are very restrictive and can usually only be used for the purpose for which they are obtained, which in this case was to pursue a civil case against the troll.
But civil action is not, in our view, always the right remedy, because often trolls will not have sufficient assets to make civil action worthwhile for victims – the trolls may not be able to pay damages or legal costs – and civil actions also do not have the same impact and deterrent quality as a criminal prosecution.
Our success has far-reaching implications with the potential to completely alter the fight against anonymous trolls in the future.
Once we had the ability to bring a prosecution, the third stage required us to actually secure one, which we succeeded in doing. Nelson was charged with racially aggravated harassment under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
Hauled to court and presented with the evidence of what he had done in cowardly anonymity, Nelson had no choice but to plead guilty.
The offence carries a maximum jail term of six months in prison and a fine. The sentence, due to be handed down in March, may be impacted by the fact that Nelson committed the criminal acts while he was under a suspended sentence for other acts of abuse.
For as long as the internet has existed, Jewish victims of online antisemitism at the hands of anonymous trolls had nowhere to go. But we hope this landmark precedent – a perfect example of the work that we do – will begin to bring about change.
It is all the more significant at a time when online safety legislation – on which we have provided input to the government – is being considered.
We will continue to devise innovative legal mechanisms to protect the Jewish community and deliver justice to victims of antisemitism, including in ways previously thought impossible.
Stephen Silverman is Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism
