Overcorrection Underway? UK Goes to War With The Internet After Social Unrest it Blames on Social Media

The British government is eyeing a crackdown social media, while a member of the public has been arrested for “inaccurate social media” post, and a Covid-era government spy team monitoring the public for “disinformation” has been brought back.

The United Kingdom has experienced days of civil unrest including protest, riots, and confrontations between ethnic groups since the mass-stabbing of young children last week. Hundreds have been arrested for real-life acts of violence and incitement, including a cop-bashing middle-aged gay couple on their way home from the bingo, counter-protester “Asian males” who assaulted Union Jack-wearing men, and a Labour politician who called for his political enemies to have their throats cut at a ‘peace’ rally.

Since the early days of this unrest the government has gone hard on social media, warning both users and platform owners that severe consequences would follow for the disinformation the government said is causing the unrest. Now the time has come to deliver on those threats, it seems, and in comments made at the headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard Friday morning Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced he was minded to crack down on the internet.

He said, reports The Guardian: “we’re going to have to look more broadly at social media after this disorder… this is not a law-free zone. And I think that’s clear from the prosecutions and sentencing.” Sir Keir boasted there would be “sentencing for online behaviour” in courts today, and reiterated “whether you’re directly involved or whether you’re remotely involved, you’re culpable, and you will be put before the courts”.

Critics say the government’s new slogan “think before your post” is a little too Orwellian for comfort, but some have already been caught up in that net. Cheshire Police boasted on Thursday evening they had arrested a woman “in connection with inaccurate social media post”, stating “a woman in relation to social media post containing inaccurate information about the identity of the attacker in the Southport murders.”

The leader of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, expressed alarm at this language from the Police, stating their press release was “so badly written” — generously overlooking the possibility it was meant to be deliberately vague. Offering her interpretation of the law, Carlo claimed that it is not, in fact, an offence to accidentally post inaccurate information on social media unless it was intentional stirring of racial hatred or knowingly publishing false information intending to cause non-trivial harm.

“These are serious allegations and shouldn’t be trivialised, nor the law misrepresented, for short term political goals” said the anti-government overreach activist, reflecting on the vague police statement: “I assume the intention is to scare people [and] prompt more caution in social posting”.

Meanwhile, a Coronavirus-era shadowy government unit that Carlo’s Big Brother Watch campaigned against at the time appears to have been resurrected by the Starmer government this week. The Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) is coming back, now given a fresh identity as the National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT) is pivoting from snooping on anti-lockdown activists — including Members of Parliament — to protest content, instead, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The paper states the observation unit is already embedded within social media companies as a “trusted flagger”, meaning it can bring content the government doesn’t want live to the attention of their moderation teams directly. The online content the unit is going after falls short of criminal activity but nevertheless is considered unwelcome, the report stated.

In all, the British government is working up to going to war with social media companies, and probably in particular Elon Musk’s Twitter / X, given his strident views on freedom of speech and the importance of having a public square for ideas to be challenged. Musk has been openly goading Sir Keir for days, something which Member of Parliament Nigel Farage has characterised as the billionaire getting the first punch in, before the legislative hammer falls, as in Venezuela.

Speaking to TalkTV on Thursday, Mr Farage said: “What I think is really interesting is the war of words that Elon Musk has launched against Starmer. You can almost tell that’s a pre-emptive strike.

“He senses that the Labour government, regulators… that things are going to get more difficult. But you know what? Governments that try and ban things, government that try and suppress things, all they do is create new avenues for people to go. And I honestly think that to control the internet, to control that debate, it’s almost impossible.”