Online racism worse now, local politicians say

Online racist abuse has become more constant and emboldened, a current and former councillor have said.

Ehthesham Haque, who represents Barnes and Thornhill on Sunderland City Council, said he regularly had to hide racist comments on his Facebook posts.

"When I first entered politics, which was about three years ago, it wasn't that bad but now every single post - no matter what it's about - there will be a loud minority that will make it about race or racism," the Labour councillor said.

Former Sunderland councillor Stephen Lewis Elms, who is mixed-race, said he had experienced people online making racist AI images. The local authority said nobody should be the target of abuse.

Elms became the city's first black or mixed-race councillor when he was elected in 2024.

He lost his seat in May's election when Reform UK took control of the city council.

He said racist online abuse was "constant" and in the past week he had reported an online incident which Northumbria Police confirmed it was investigating.

About 72% of councillors surveyed by the Local Government Association (LGA) in 2025 said they had experienced abuse or intimidation because of their roles.

This figure was higher among women and ethnic minorities with 84% of both groups reporting such behaviour.

Elms said he did not want to turn off comments because "if I take the comments off, it's just kind of covering my eyes to what's actually going on".

Both Elms and Haque blamed the current "political temperature" for the rise in abuse.

Sunderland City Council said it provided guidance to its councillors so they could report derogatory, threatening or abusive social media activity.

Haque said he understood that people had concerns about immigration, but felt that many of the comments on his posts about council business were unwarranted.

He highlighted posts about improving parking safety on Chester Road which he said led to hostile comments.

"The truth is, it's not personal," Haque said.

"It's literally just because I'm a person of colour."

Haque said he often felt disappointed when he clicked on some of the profiles of those liking such comments.

"They seem like family people, often doing charity fundraisers and then they like a comment saying 'oh - why is an Asian person allowed to be on the council'," he said.

He said most of the time he hid the comments and that he continued as a councillor because he felt he had the backing of his ward.

He also said he believed the level of racism was like a "wave".

"We're kind of riding it out," he said.

"It won't last forever."

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