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"Arrests for offensive Facebook and Twitter posts soar in London" [1]

"Arrests for 'offensive' Twitter and Facebook messages up by a third" [2]

"British Police Arrest At Least 3,395 People for ‘Offensive’ Online Comments in One Year" [3]

"Police arresting nine people a day in fight against web trolls" [4]

"More than 3,300 people were detained and questioned last year over so-called trolling on social media and other online forums, a rise of nearly 50 per cent in two years, according to figures obtained by The Times.

About half of the investigations were dropped before prosecutions were brought, however, leading to criticism from civil liberties campaigners that the authorities are over-policing the internet and threatening free speech...."

[1] - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/arrests-for-offensive-f...

[2] - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/02/social_media_arrests...

[3] - http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/10/14/british-police-ar...

[4] - https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-arresting-nine-peo...



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It has already been happening in UK for some time. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/arrests-offensive-face...

The UK police was already doing middle-of-the-night raids on people's houses over stuff they tweet ~9yrs ago: https://www.businessinsider.com/in-britain-police-arrest-twi...

They also proudly announced arresting a 12yr old for being racist on the internet: https://i.redd.it/24ivki7pmna51.jpg


There was a fascinating(!) thread here https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/165555527715073229... with a longer story:

Right-wing "English Constitution Party" were going to demonstrate with rape alarms (https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/165555531421578035...) and that got 'confused' in the more rabid press as 'eco-zealots' plot' sort of stuff.

The Met decided they needed to be seen to act to remove the "dangerous" rape alarms, but the easiest way to do that was to arrest these poor folks (https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/165561644937587509...). The police knew they knew were around and had rape alarms because that's their job and the police gave them the alarms.

Anyhoo, the rabid press, the deeply populist government, and the disgraced met police (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-65164489) are quite a mix.


London Metropolitan Police already has an Online Hate Speech Hub with varying reports of staff (5-20?).

This is in spite of admissions they do not have enough resources to respond to property offenses.


First arrest back in April: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/coronavirus-mari...

150 people arrested in London protest: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-55116470

...including Jeremy Corbyn's brother, who was fined thousands of pounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-52693383

People are being arrested just for filming empty hospitals: https://twitter.com/Jen70717630/status/1344332042188845056

Hundreds of people fined yesterday: https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-hundreds-fined-over-new-...

This is clearly enough to create a chilling effect on socialisation.


Source? There is a similar charge in London, that's all I know of

> "The ones in London like to regale others with tales of how much they enjoy donning their riot gear and using any excuse to batter people, especially if they are black"

If this is true then you need to immediately report it to MPS DPS and IOPC.


has the UK gone fucking insane in the last ten years or so? was it always like this? it seems like i just keep hearing these mind-boggling police state stories lately. maybe in the US we have to worry more about getting shot by the cops but i'd take that astronomical chance over worrying about posting song lyrics on my instagram or making a dark joke: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7686779/vile-grenfell-effigy-t...

I think the article is originally from Echo, which is Liverpool's local newspaper. Crazy the number of people that have been arrested in that city.


>..but want to make London safer.

It would be nice to be safer from police harassment.


Meanwhile, London Police....

Recent aggression in London and around the UK



Feel free to run around london with a knife or push people on to the tracks at stations though. The police are busy dealing with real crime like upsetting tweets.

Saturday's savagery in North London, which has led to more than 100 arrests, caused £100million damage... http://tinyurl.com/4292tv8

>Positive outcome rates are similar whatever people’s ethnicity is. Around 25% of searches result in some action being taken.

https://fullfact.org/crime/stop-and-search-england-and-wales...

That's for London

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