PLANS for an elite team of cops tasked with monitoring social media for anti-migrant posts have emerged.
Detectives would be handpicked from forces across the UK to take part in the new programme amid fears of rioting as the small boats crisis escalates.
UKNIPThe new unit will monitor social media posts about immigration[/caption]
GettyThe step has been slammed as an attack on freedom of speech[/caption]
PALucy Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in prison for her misinformed posts about Southport[/caption]
The division, overseen by the Home Office, would look to “maximise social media intelligence” gathering after multiple forces were slammed for their response to last year’s migrant unrest.
Protests outside asylum hotels are continuing to heat up, with crowds gathering yesterday in the likes of Norwich, Leeds and Bournemouth – and more demonstrations are 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 they further restrict 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.
It also enforced lockdown rules during the Covid pandemic.
Plans for the new unit were spotted in a letter to MPs by Dame Diana Johnson, policing minister.
She said the Government is “carefully considering recommendations” made by the Commons home affairs committee, as well as His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, including “building” the social media cops team.
“This team will provide a national capability to monitor social media intelligence and advise on its use to inform local operational decision-making,” she added.
Dame Diana was responding to an inquiry by the committee into cops’ handling of riots last summer.
It had recommended setting up a new policing system with “enhanced capacity to monitor and respond to social media at the national level”.
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.”
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.
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.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This new team will help police forces track real-time information and protect communities from incidents and emergencies before they escalate.
“As part of the Government’s Plan for Change, we are restoring visible, neighbourhood policing, focused on the public’s priorities, including halving knife crime and violence against women, clamping down on theft and anti-social behaviour, and ensuring that people can feel safe in their own high streets.”
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