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The UK government has created a new taskforce to monitor anti-migration sentiment online, as official fears grow of another summer of unrest like last year’s.
According to Britain’s Daily Telegraph, the UK Home Office has formed a group called National Internet Intelligence Investigations to “maximise social media intelligence” about anti-migration sentiment in the UK.
The group will work from the National Police Coordination Centre, which was used to monitor and enforce the social restrictions during the pandemic.
The move comes as anger grows around the country in response to the government’s migration policies.
A number of protests have been staged after an Ethiopian migrant assaulted a teenage girl in Epping, Essex.
The government has vowed to come down hard on protesters if there is a repeat of last year’s unrest, which began with the murder of three schoolgirls in Southport by Axel Rudakubana, the son of a Rwandan migrant.
“While the public have a right to protest against the current situation, we will never tolerate unlawful or violent behaviour,” a government spokesman told The Independent.
“Working closely with the police, we have thorough and well-tested contingency plans in place to deal with any public disorder, which have been strengthened since last year’s shameful scenes.”
Footage of the current protests has been blocked on X for British users after the country’s controversial new “Online Safety Act” came into effect on Friday.
The Act, passed by the previous Conservative government, was intended to prevent children from being exposed to pornography and graphic content on the internet, but it already appears to be being used for a very different purpose.
British users shared screenshots of messages they received when they tried to access footage of anti-migration protests that began when an Ethiopian migrant sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl.
British users received the following message: “Due to local laws, we are temporarily restricting access to this content until X estimates your age.”
Before the introduction of the Online Safety Act, X stated that it would use various methods, including “email-based estimation” to assess whether a user is likely to be an adult or not.
The Online Safety Act mandates fines of £18 million or up to 10% of a company’s turnover if a company violates the Act.
On X on Saturday, Elon Musk said the purpose of the Act is “suppression of the people.”
In a statement, the UK-based Free Speech Union said, “Our fears appear to have been vindicated on the very first day of the Online Safety Act’s enactment.
“If you have a standard X account in the UK—presumably the majority of British users—it appears that you may not be able to see any protest footage that contains violence. We’re aware of one censored post that shows an arrest being made.
“We warned repeatedly about how censorious this piece of legislation would be.”
An online petition to repeal the Act has so far received over 160,000 signatures, meaning Parliament must now consider its motion for debate.
