Matt Bagott discusses Social Media and the Law in Northern Ireland (Alan Meban Interview)

Alan Meban, otherwise known as AlaninBelfast (@alaninbelfast) interviewed the Chief Constable of the PSNI Matt Bagott, in mid-April 2013 on social media and the rule of law. Here's what he asked:

Social media is a policing tool as well as a source of crime. Are we going to see a big increase in the number of arrests for online hate crimes and other offenses?

"I think social media gives people the opportunity to be foolish in the sense they don’t have to think so much about what they’re saying and the impact of that. How the law applies to social media is something that has had to be looked at in quite some detail in the past year. In England and Wales the Crown Prosecution Service only got to public guidance at the end of last year, 2012. So we’ve taken that guidance. 

At the moment what we’re doing is if we get what we think are offences being committed on social media we will report those to the Public Prosecution Service who will make the prosecutorial decisions. And we have prosecuted some people. But for what some people think is offensive, under the law may not be criminal, and that’s that gap. We’ve taken the guidance from England and Wales, the PPS are looking at that here at the moment, and where we do have overt offences we will pursue them but the laws not quite so straightforward as people think it might be."

Matt Bagott explains his position on Social Media

Following correspondence with a Member of the Stormont Assembly, I acquired on February 11 a communications document from Chief Constable Matt Bagott which outlined the position of the PSNI in relation to the online world of social media.

"It is worthy of note that the Right to Freedom of Expression (Article 10 ECHR) is enshrined in UK law by virtue of The Human Rights Act 1998. Whilst this is not an absolute right the threshold to be reached for a prosecution is a high one. 

In recognition of the complexity of Social Media-based criminality, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England and Wales, Keir Starmer, QC has issued interim guidance via the CPS. This guidance forms part of an ongoing consultation process on the future approach to tackling Social Media-based criminality. 

The DPP is recognised as a leading authority in Human Rights Law and was previously a Human Rights Advisor to the Policing Board. 

Within Northern Ireland the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has not yet adopted formal guidance of their own, however they are content for the PSNI to work to that issued by the DPP. 

Social Media related incidents/crimes are relatively new so there is presently an inconsistent approach to the recording of same on police systems. Whilst a number of cases have been referred to the PPS none have reached the threshold for prosecution. We will of course continue to work closely with the PPS in respect of such matters and refer individual cases as and when all investigative strands are complete. 

Moving forward, and to return to the specific points within your question, discussions have taken place around identifying steps to enable some method to enable us to easily identify social media offences so to allow for details to be more easily captured/interrogated. However, at this stage work in this area has yet to commence."

Read the communication with Matt Bagott in full here.