Web Trolls Are Swamping Police - Calls For Lifetime Social Media Bans
March 3, 2015 | Technology
Jeremy Armstrong of the Mirror.co.uk reports:
Mike Barton, head of Durham Police, says there was a 40 per cent rise in charges relating to improper use of electronic messages in England from 2010-13.
And he warns those figures ‘do not tell the full story’, with officers around the country ‘inundated’ with complaints about harassment and abuse.
Scores of celebrities, sports stars, MPs and actors have been abused online. Olympic golden girl Jessica Ennis-Hill received threats after asking for her name to be removed from Sheffield United’s stand last year if rapist Ched Evans re-signed.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has also called for a ban on online trolls.
The latest figures show that over three months in 2014, 2,962 incidents were identified, around 30 a day, in the Durham force area alone.
In his ‘open letter’ to Twitter and Facebook, Mr Barton writes: “Key findings showed that online harassment, threats, abuse and bullying accounted for 68% of all incidents with an online element.
“This data suggests the Internet is used as a platform to harass, make threats, abuse, bully and in some cases the dispute has escalated ‘off-line’ and a crime has been committed, for example, criminal damage or violence.”
Dad-of-three Mr Barton, 57, in charge of intelligence gathering for the Assoc of Chief Police Officers across all 43 UK forces, went on: “Only eight per cent of online harassment, threats, abuse and bullying reported incidents were recorded as a crime - and that is the real issue we, as a police force, are facing.
“The challenge for us is distinguishing when these online disputes/insults become a crime.
“More and more time is spent by my officers dealing with online rows and abuse where we have no real chance of any prosecution.
“Regularly I am told by beat officers that they are visiting the homes of people whose child has been called names by another child on Twitter or Facebook. Is this what the public would like my officers to spend their time doing?
“Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter, has admitted that the company is not doing enough to tackle harassment and abuse, saying: ‘We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform’.
“I encourage him to start taking a tougher stance on online troublemakers. Put simply, if people can’t behave on-line then Dick Costolo and his colleagues should remove the privilege of Twitter and other social media channels and kick them off.”
Mr Barton hit the headlines two years ago, shortly after becoming Chief Constable of Durham, when he backed the “Al Capone” approach to crime fighting in ‘going after’ crime bosses for minor offences if necessary.
He has also entered the debate on the reform of the current drug laws.
Facebook’s UK spokesman declined to comment, while Twitter did not reply to a request for their views."
Ends
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