Posted on 10/14/2017 9:32:50 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Figures obtained by The Times through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 3,395 people across 29 forces were arrested last under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, which makes it illegal to intentionally “cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another”, in 2016.
The true figure is likely to be significantly higher, as thirteen police forces refused to provide the requested information and two did not provide usable data.
Around half of the investigations were abandoned before being brought to prosecution, which critics say is an indication that the authorities are being excessively strict in their interpretation of the law’s restrictions on freedom of speech.
Nevertheless, many forces have massively stepped up their focus on so-called trolls, with the number of arrests by West Midlands Police having increased by an astonishing 877 per cent since 2014.
With Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s announcement of a special national police hub focused on online hate last week, it is expected that these numbers will only increase.
Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said: “the problem is ‘grossly offensive’ is not something you should normally be prosecuted for. It’s not showing harm to other people. It’s not showing that somebody is being … attacked or threatened.”
The seeming inconsistency in the enforcement of free speech restrictions has also been a source of contention, with the Metropolitan Police — who detained 867 people in 2016, according to the Times figures — appearing reluctant to investigate people such as Nadia Chan, the self-described Islamist who was revealed as having made a number of deeply racist remarks about white people on social media after an appearance on public broadcaster Channel 4.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The Brits? What a bunch of
Paging the NFL.
Orwellian.
And don’t forget, this is white liberals doing this.
Muslims aren’t making them do this.
Not in a sane society. But alas, Britain has long since abandoned anything resembling sanity.
No Islaminoids arrested.
I pity poor Winston. They didn’t listen to him when he spoke of Adolph Hitler and “reaped what they sowed.”
And repeating history, they ignore Winston’s early description of Islam.
Will history repeat? Very possibly.
How many were complainants were muslim?
Everybody on the internet is hereby under arrest.
Well, that’s reassuring. Apparently the British cops are out of other crimes to solve. Did they ever manage to run down that Virginia feller who tweeted “If this be treason, make the most of it”?
This is why they don’t want anonymity on the internet. They can’t punish you if they don’t know who you are.
This article is causing “annoyance, inconvenience, and needless anxiety” in me so please arrest HomO Secretary Amber Rudd.
I guess there isn’t a Brit version of Free Republic?!
Exactly right.
Britain now has a Minister of Hurt Feelings.
One of the reasons the libs cried so hard when broom hilda lost. They want to be able to lock up people here for thinking incorrect thoughts.
I doubt that they’d allow a website such as “freerealm.co.uk” to be registered too. It’d have to be overseas.
Yikes. They better stay away from my twitter account. I’ve already been put in twitter jail a time or two.
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