In response to the Southport unrest last summer, the Government cracked down heavily on people who were alleged to have stirred up racial hatred, or intended to do so, through things they had posted online. While it is far from clear that social media posts were a principal cause of the civil disorder last summer – or even that they had any effect on it – this was the narrative that came to be accepted in officialdom, with Sir Keir Starmer insisting that the violence had been “clearly whipped up online”.
Given the dubious causal link between online posts and what happened, and that stirring something up online is surely less serious than participating in actual violence, one might think that any prosecutions for online speech would result in comparatively minor punishments. Under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, for instance, sending “grossly offensive” or “threatening” messages on social media can result in a prison sentence of up to six months, compared to the one-to-three years in prison for violent disorder many rioters received.
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