There are concerns that some of the violence seen during recent riots in the UK has “crossed the line into terrorism”, according to former head of counter-terrorism policing, Neil Basu. Basu, who held this position from 2018 to 2021, said that serious acts of violence have been carried out with the intention of causing terror within communities. He called on his successors to carefully consider the legal definition of terrorism in relation to some of the violence and actions seen during the riots.
Basu argued that the wave of violence was sparked by “lies spread through social media”. He explained that social media companies only respond to a change in the law or advertisers distancing themselves from “platforms that would allow lies that result in violence and sheer terror in communities”. He called on advertisers to cut funding to social media giants if they do not take responsibility for the content shared on their platforms.
The targeting of hotels believed to be housing migrants has been a feature of the recent riots, with years of demonisation by the far right resulting in lists of hotels being shared on social media. Basu argued that there are gaps in the laws relating to hateful extremism, and called for measures to prevent individuals like far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – also known as Tommy Robinson – from glorifying and creating violence from overseas.
Basu suggested that if Robinson is not crossing a legal threshold, then the government and society should consider whether that threshold is in the wrong place. He argued that Robinson has for years been able to “inflame and toxify debates and create the kind of mayhem we’re seeing”. Robinson spent the weekend posting inflammatory messages to his many followers from a sun lounger in Cyprus, after being handed back his Twitter account last November by social media company owner Elon Musk
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