“Trolling” makes it sound cuddly
Sky News talks to Kate Smurthwaite about online abuse and harassment.
It would be nice if Sky News had not stuck the label “Thought Police” next to Kate’s name in the caption. It’s not “thought policing” to want to be free of abuse online.
https://youtu.be/ZME4L7FJ_qA
Terrible banner. I suppose it might be referring to harassers as Thought Police. Certainly Free Thought Blogs had its share of those.
Yes. preventing or stopping people from harming other people isn’t thought policing, it’s policing. The interviewer asked some of the right questions and Kate was as good as always. I wonder who decided to put that thought police label there. Someone, certainly, who is proud of it.
I have some other issues about this anti-trolling unit. First, the Met announces such a thing about three times a year and nobody ever hears about it again. Second: five officers? Are you shitting me? FIVE. Third: £1.7m for those five officers, their office space, computers, support staff, training, management? Let alone an operational budget. Are you shitting me even more?
What’s their remit? What are their operational limitations? What’s their expertise? What influence do they have with social media providers? What rank is the most senior officer and what political standing does that officer have? What’s their remit: this is the Met, are they only interested in offenders from London? Or victims from London? What? Do they have a car pool? Do they have an expense budget?
This is particularly unconvincing security theatre and no good will come of it. The thin blue line really doesn’t have to be quite that thin. Quadruple that budget- still really cheap – and we might have the basis for building a necessary department in one specific police area. Sadly, it still wouldn’t help Kate in Edinburgh.