Police unit in England to monitor online signs of anti-migrant disorder. Intelligence team could track social media and flag early signs of civil unrest in response to renewed demonstrations. A national police unit will monitor social media for signs of anti-migrant disorder amid fears of a repeat of last summer’s riots across England. Detectives from across the country will flag up the early signs of civil unrest under a beefed-up National Police Coordination Center (NPoCC) in Westminster. The new intelligence team is a response to the anti-migrant disorder across England and Northern Ireland after the murder of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport last July. A fresh wave of demonstrations spread this weekend to Leeds, Norwich and Nottinghamshire after violent scenes last week outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Epping, Essex. The plan for a new police unit to track signs of such disorder were revealed on Sunday in a letter to MPs by the policing minister, Diana Johnson. Johnson said the Home Office was “carefully considering” building a “national internet intelligence investigations team” as part of the NPoCC, which shares briefings on “nationally significant” demonstrations with police forces across England and Wales. She said: “This team will provide a national capability to monitor social media intelligence and advise on its use to inform local operational decision-making. “This will be a dedicated function at a national level for exploiting internet intelligence to help local forces manage public safety threats and risks. “Funding for this capability beyond 2025-26 will need to be considered in line with future funding priorities, but I am confident that as a first step, this new central team will help build capability across forces to maximize social media intelligence.” Critics claimed the unit was an attempt to “police opinions” that would turn Britain into a “surveillance state”. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, told the Sunday Telegraph: “This is the beginning of the state controlling free speech. It is sinister, dangerous and must be fought.”
UK Creates 1984-Like Police Unit to Monitor Social Media Posts
Posted by 
Who Watches the Watchers? 