A GOVERNMENT “spy unit” has been used by Labour in a plot to crack down on social media critics.
Whitehall officials have allegedly been flagging posts which criticise migrant hotels, immigration and “two-tier” policing.
GettyLabour has been slammed for attacking freedom of speech[/caption]
UKNIPA new policing unit is set to monitor social media posts about immigration[/caption]
Almost 900 migrants made the journey across the Channel on Wednesday
Emails from last August – during the height of the Southport riots – have exposed exchanges between civil servants and major tech firms, including TikTok.
Conversations show members of the Government’s National Security and Online Information Team calling on the social media giants to “assess” certain videos and content online.
The same team also enforced lockdown rules during the Covid pandemic.
One particular post, revealed by The Telegraph, called for greater transparency on the location of migrant hotels.
Another highlighted post pointed to “two-tier policing”, accusing cops of treating white protesters more harshly than others during last year’s riots.
It comes as protests outside asylum hotels are continuing to heat up, with crowds gathering in the likes of Norwich, Leeds and Bournemouth.
A Government spokesman said: “Free speech is a cornerstone of our democracy. The Online Safety Act protects it.
“Platforms have a duty to uphold freedom of expression, and the Act places no curbs whatsoever on what adults can say and see on the internet – unless it is something that would already be illegal, offline.
“The Government has no role in deciding what actions platforms take on legal content for adults – that is a matter for them, according to their own rules.
“However we make no apologies for flagging to platforms content which is contrary to their own terms of service and which can result in violent disorder on our streets, as we saw in the wake of the horrific Southport attack.”
Deputy PM Angela Rayner warned the Cabinet last week that the Government must step in to address “real concerns” about immigration.
And plans for a new elite team of cops tasked with monitoring social media for anti-migrant posts emerged earlier this week.
They were spotted in a letter to MPs by Dame Diana Johnson, policing minister.
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.
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.
The National Internet Intelligence Investigations team would 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.
However, critics have labelled the social media policing as “disturbing” and questioned if they further restrict freedom of speech.
Speaking on the plans, Dame Diana Johnson said the Government was “carefully considering recommendations” made by the Commons home affairs committee.
“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”.
Tory councillor Raymond Connolly’s wife Lucy was jailed for 31 months last October after posting comments on her X account.
The posts were made just hours after evil Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls in the Merseyside town on July 29 last year.
Ms Connolly 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.
The 41-year-old childminder wrote: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care…
“If that makes me racist, so be it.”
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 record number 25,000 people have come to the UK on small boats this year, with 898 arriving on just Wednesday alone.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage slammed the fresh data, saying: “This means more hotels, costs and more people who should not be here.
“The public have had enough.”
The figure is up 51 per cent on this point last year, and is 73 per cent higher than in 2023.
Lucy Connolly urged rioters to set migrant hotels alight
x.com/@LJCJ83She published the comments on her X account[/caption]
Labour had pledged to crack down on small boat crossings but numbers have continued to rise Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
