Online offence is back in the news after a man received a suspended sentence of 10 weeks for sending a ‘grossly offensive’ viral video of a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire. It’s an issue that the Tory party have mixed views on: many of its MPs claim to stand for free speech but Nadine Dorries’s Online Safety Bill aims to restrict abusive content, with obvious potential ramifications.
So how much police time is currently being spent on investigating offensive online posts? Well, Mr S has seen some Freedom of Information requests which point to the issue being of increasing concern to our boys in blue. Between 2020 and 2022 four police forces in England investigated 133 cases of offensive social media posts. Lancashire Constabulary spent 46 hours interviewing suspects in 63 cases while West Yorkshire Police investigating ten cases over six hours, although this was only information on crimes that ‘were not subsequently cancelled.’ Devon and Cornwall Police and Bedfordshire Police respectively investigated 38 and 22 offences each, although neither recorded the amount of time spent.
Information was obtained using an FOI request which asked for information on ‘the number of times individuals have been interviewed… regarding offensive social media posts.’ The FOI request defined ‘offensive’ social media posts as anything encompassed by the Communications Act 2003 which specifies ‘a person is guilty of an offence if he sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.’
Not all are so keen on the police’s current priorities. Joe Ventre of the TaxPayers Alliance told Mr S: ‘Taxpayers want the police catching thugs and thieves, not obsessing over social media posts. Police forces should not be prioritising these petty investigations.’ Will Priti Patel and the Home Office agree?
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