Police in the UK have been authorized by the government to begin mass arresting citizens who post content on social media that has been ‘debunked’ by Facebook fact checkers.
Sky News reports that a British woman has been arrested by Cheshire Police for posting content deemed ‘false’ by fact checkers.
Modernity.news reports: The 55-year-old woman was arrested near the northern town of Chester on “suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications.”
Chief Superintendent Allison Ross gave a statement explaining how the post is alleged to have “fueled” the protests and riots in the UK over the last week, which she asserts started as a result of “malicious and inaccurate communications online.”
Ross said the arrest was a warning to others about “the dangers of posting information on social media platforms without checking the accuracy” and that “we are all accountable for our actions.”
UK police are now arresting people for being wrong on the Internet. Let that sink in.
Presumably, the woman will now be thrown in prison along with people who attended the protests, such as Steven Mailen, who has been jailed for 26 months for “shouting” at police officers.
As we highlighted earlier, head of the Met Police Sir Mark Rowley warned that “keyboard warriors” could be hit with terrorism charges for inciting riots online, even if they are living abroad.
Brits have also been warned that merely retweeting information about the riots could lead to criminal charges.
Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions, told Sky News that people do not even need to personally post the content themselves to be deemed to be committing an offence.
Parkinson said social media users could be guilty of “incitement to racial hatred” if they post “insulting or abusive” content that is “likely to stir up racial hatred.”
