Elite team of cops to monitor anti-migrant social media posts to clamp down on unrest as critics blast ‘disturbing' move
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AN elite team of cops will be tasked with monitoring social media for anti-migrant posts.
Detectives are being handpicked from forces across the UK to take part in the new programme amid fears of rioting as the small boats crisis escalates.
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The new unit will monitor social media posts about immigration
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The step has been slammed as an attack on freedom of speech
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Lucy Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in prison for her misinformed posts about Southport
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The division, overseen by the Home Office, will look to "maximise social media intelligence" gathering after forces were slammed for their response to last year's unrest.
Protests outside asylum hotels is continuing to heat up, with crowds gathering yesterday in the likes of Norwich, Leeds and Bournemouth - and more demonstrations planned today.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner warned the Cabinet last week that the Government must step in to address "real concerns" about immigration.
However, critics have labelled the social media policing plans as "disturbing" and questioned if it further restricts freedom of speech.
The National Internet Intelligence Investigations team, will work out of the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) in Westminster.
The NPoCC provides the central planning for forces across the UK in terms of "nationally significant protests" and civil disorder.
And enforced lockdown rules during the Covid pandemic.
Lucy Connolly fury
It comes after Tory councillor Raymond Connolly's wife Lucy was jailed for 31 months after posting comments on her X account just hours after evil Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls in the Merseyside town on July 29 last year.
Ms Connolly, 41, shared a call to arms following the deaths of Bebe King, six, nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, last July.
Posts wrongly claimed monster Rudakubana was a Muslim asylum seeker when he was actually born in Cardiff and raised Christian.
Ms Connelly's punishment sparked fury across the political divide.
16 arrested after protests outside Epping migrant hotel as ring of steel ramps up around TWO asylum seeker centres
Furious Brits noted that despite the former child minder quickly deleting her post, she remains in prison while paedos such as Hugh Edwards escaped jail time.
Referring to the social media cops, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, told the Daily Telegraph: 'Two-tier Keir can't police the streets, so he's trying to police opinions instead.
"They're setting up a central team to monitor what you post, what you share, what you think, because deep down they know the public don't buy what they're selling."
He added Labour are no longer "pretending" to fix Britain and are now "trying to mute it" - turning the country into a "surveillance state".
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: 'This is the beginning of the state controlling free speech. It is sinister, dangerous and must be fought. Reform UK will do just that.'
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