From the Sunday Telegraph:
Elite police squad to monitor anti-migrant posts on social media
An elite team of police officers is to monitor social media for anti-migrant sentiment amid fears of summer riots.
Detectives will be drawn from forces across the country to take part in a new investigations unit that will flag up early signs of potential civil unrest.
The division, assembled by the Home Office, will aim to “maximise social media intelligence” gathering after police forces were criticised over their response to last year’s riots.
The article has been received with apocalyptic fury online, with Reform’s Zia Yusuf calling it “terrifying” and populist ideologue Matt Goodwin warning that “we will all soon be with Lucy Connolly folks” (more on Connolly here). The article itself including condemnations from Nigel Farage and from Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who sneered that “Two-tier Keir can’t police the streets, so he’s trying to police opinions instead.” Rupert Lowe has written with performative discourtesy (“what are you playing at?”) to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (although he doesn’t deign to use her name) demanding answers.
The article is based on letter sent by Diana Johnson, Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire of the United Kingdom, on 17 July. It is publicly available on the UK Parliament website, and it unsurprising to note that in fact it makes no reference anywhere to “anti-migrant sentiment”.
The letter was written to the Conservative MP Karen Bradley, who as Chair of the Home Affairs Committee had asked for “more detail on the Government’s plans for building police capability to gather open source intelligence from social media”, following on from the the Government’s response to the Committee’s Report into the policing response to the 2024 summer disorder. Bradley wrote on 1 July:
Given the recent scenes in Northern Ireland, where social media has again been used as a means of inciting and organising disorder, I am sure you will agree that the way police forces use social media is becoming an increasingly important component of many police responses.
Bradley’s very reasonable observation has now been undercut by her Conservative colleague Philp, who apparently takes the view that the police have no business taking account of how “social media has again been used as a means of inciting and organising disorder” and that “building police capacity to gather open source intelligence” is a sinister conspiracy by the government to suppress criticism.
Here is what Johnson actually wrote in reply to Bradley – some of it is quoted directly by the Telegraph, but those investing in the newspaper’s narrative framing don’t seem to have bothered checking the original source before mouthing off:
Dear Dame Karen,
Thank you for your letter of 1 July regarding the Government’s response to the Committee’s recent report into the policing response to the 2024 summer disorder. As you have requested, I am pleased to set out the further information below.
You asked about current plans to build police capability for using social media intelligence at force and national levels. We are carefully considering recommendations made by the Committee and HMICFRS in this area, including building a National Internet Intelligence Investigations team as part of the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC).
This team will provide a national capability to monitor social media intelligence and advise on its use to inform local operational decision making. This will be a dedicated function at a national level for exploiting internet intelligence to help local forces manage public safety threats and risks. Funding for this capability beyond 25/26 will need to be considered in line with future funding priorities but I am confident that as a first step, this new central team will help build capability across forces to maximise social media intelligence…
Although the Telegraph article does mention “intelligence”, the headline reference to “anti-migrant posts”, and this is why Philp and other critics appear to believe it is about opinions.
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