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."

Northern Ireland Law Society Talks Social Media

Compared to the Law Society in England and Wales and the one in Scotland, Northern Ireland's solicitor regulatory body has been pretty quiet on the matter and question of social media.

However it hasn't gone without mention and it appears that the Law Society in Northern Ireland is at least open to the idea of solicitors and law firms in Northern Ireland using and getting to grips with social media. How do I know this. Well because of an advertisement I found on Google that referred to a social media seminar for law firms to be hosted by the NI Law Society in June 2012.

The June 11 event was advertised here, and was hosted by the Law Society's Communication Officer, Paul O'Connor and Tim McKane of Belfast digital media agency, Novajo Talk.

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.

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.

The French Lurch Towards Social Media Censorship

These are interesting times for social media. In Dublin Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes seems to be toying with the idea of bringing in the legal control of online communications. In England and Wales the director of public prosecutions has played it cool and has put the matter out to public consultation.

At least 653 charged with Social Media Crimes in 2012

On December 27 2012 BBC Radio 4 News at 6 reported that at least 653 people have been charged with crimes relating to the social media sites Facebook and Twitter. The statistics were accessed by the Press Association News Agency under freedom of information legislation. The statistics themselves came from just over half of the legal forces from England, Wales and Scotland.

Paul Tweed talks about the Northern Ireland legal economy, international mediation and media law

In a feature on Ulster Business Magazine Paul Tweed talks about the state of the Northern Ireland legal economy and how his firm has prospered in tough times; international mediation and then his specialisation, media law.

You’d be forgiven for thinking one who does would be working behind a mahogany desk in a palatial office in Los Angeles or London, his every call screened by an army of assistants. 

Instead, Paul Tweed, the senior partner of Johnsons Solicitors, works from a functional building on Belfast’s Wellington Place, which, on the unusually hot day I meet him, has the windows wide open to the traffic noise below to keep cool. His direct line rings at regular intervals. He pours his own coffee. And the desk is so covered in papers I can’t guess what it’s made of, but I’d bet its not mahogany.

Massive libel settlement by blogger

From Feb 27 2012, read here.