Newton Emerson - PSNI turn blind eye offline while exercising firm hand online

In contrast with the averted legal gaze cast over loyalist murals and gable walls, Newton Emerson makes the point that the PSNI has not been as pliant when it comes to threatening words and images posted on social media walls. He said in the September 26 2013 edition of the Irish News:

"It is hard to avoid a comparison with the rise in social media prosecutions, and not just because Facebook messages are said to be posted to a 'wall'. Between 2009 and 2012, Facebook and Twitter were mentioned by the PSNI in almost 5,000 incident investigations. Over the same period, annual convictions tripled to 110 a year."

Newton then asked:

"How can the PSNI, the Public Prosecutiom Service and the courts chose to police this virtually infinite cyberspace for threatening words and images while ignoring a few dozen physical spaces right under their nose?"

He answered his own question:

"We are all wearily familiar with the answers. Paramilitary mural painters, unlike Internet trolls, would respond to lawful sanction with violence."

But perhaps a very real question needs answered: Are law enforcement agencies simply cherry picking those they chose to pursue within the infinite cyberspace, while allowing the more sinister and unruly elements to carry on unfettered?

The PSNI are patrolling social media

The Detail has good coverage on the new policing habits of the PSNI in the new online world. Get some insights here.

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."

Rising Number of Social Media Incidents in Northern Ireland - 73 in 2010, 1,541 in 2011, 2,887 in 2012

Read my analysis on eamonnmallie.com here. See the original document acquired under the Freedom of Information Act in full here. I acquired the information from the Chief Constable via the Justice Committee on February 19 2013.

Rising Number of Social Media Prosecutions in Northern Ireland - 152 in 2010, 142 in 2011 and 213 in 2012

Above is a screen grab of the excel document which gives a breakdown of the total number of social media prosecutions brought in Northern Ireland, in the year 2010, 2011 and 2012. You can see the full document here. This was accessed through the Freedom of Information Act.

The FOI document was acquired on February 15 2013.

Also, below is a breakdown of some of the specific offences and the specific law used to prosecute.