The Police, Ukip And A Series Of Satirical Tweets.

[sp1814]

Leaving aside any political allegiances you may have, do you feel that the police reaction to Michael Abberton's tweets is a little 'over the top'?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/12/police-ask-blogger-remove-legitimate-tweet-ukip

I can understand when the police are called in when threats are made on Twitter, but as far as I can tell, this was no more than legitimate comment!

On a much less important note...isn't it depressing that (seemingly) so many people still don't understand how Twitter works???

[DrFilth]

> On a much less important note...isn't it depressing that (seemingly) so many people still don't understand how Twitter works??? <

i have a lot of trouble with twitter and facebook, i use to follow a couple of people but stopped it is much more easier to follow them in real life -)

[DrFilth]

ps that was a joke notice the -) at the end

[whirlyhurly]

Never used Twitter, it sounds far too intrusive to me.

[DrFilth]

whirlyhurly it is full of twits

[rockyracoon]

They said it wasn't really a police matter? What the heck were they doing their then?

[naomi24]

Natalie Bennett is right. It is disturbing.

[ichkeria]

When you say "don't understand how it works" do you mean "can't use it properly" or ... "don't understand how it works"
I use it a lot but I don't find it particularly user friendly. In fact the developers recently admitted its shortcomings.
Twitter is excellent for following events and getting info from people in interesting places.
I'm mystified by it's appeal otherwise. I have all of 8 followers on mine, and I'm sure none of them give a damn what I think about anything ;-)
Also 140 chars is no way enough for a loquacious Irishman

[ladybirder]

Shock Horror I'm agreeing with the Green Party! And Natalie B.

[jomifl]

It makes sense that the police should have ukip sympathies..

[naomi24]

Ladybirder, me too - and I was as shocked as you are. ;o)

[ToraToraTora]

green party!PMSL, not living in a glass house there then!

[DrFilth]

ri , energy efficient windows triple glazing, Low-E coating, wooden window frames from sustainable forest wood

[jno]

We looked at this for offences and there was nothing we could actually identify that required police intervention.

Well, er, that should be it, then, shouldn't it? Why didn't they just go off and arrest some criminals instead of leaning on a blogger? How very bizarre.

I'd say exactly the same if the parties were reversed.

[Gromit]

I suspect that because the complaint was from a councillor, that the police feel more obliged to be seen to be acting - even in this instance where there is no case to answer.

I am wondering if these two have some rivalry locally. Why was he looking at the tweets? There must be lots of nasty thing on the world wide web, why did the councillor complain about those?

[Gromit]

The UKiP councillor is not name (and shouldbe) is we cannot tell if they are from the same area.

[Svejk]

I'd like to see the 'offending' material. If it purported to come from UKIP then it probably is illegal.

[Gromit]

Svejk

It was a spoof UKiP lesflet it was meant as a joke and the people receiving it were not supposed to think it was from UKiP. It was not an attempt to deceive it was making fun of them.

I have now read the mans blog and he says the UKiP complainant phoned him after the police visit. Obviously you cannot get phone numbers of twitters, so my suspicion this is part of some sort of local fued looks more likely.

They shouldn't be wasting police time though.

[sp1814]

Svejk

This isn't how Twitter works.

You don't actually 'send' anything (unlike email). You simply post items on your own Twitter feed. Those who follow you then get alerts (if they choose to) when you post new items.

[Canary42]

I think it's more depressing that so many people do understand how Twitter works :)

[jim360]

I don't know much about Twitter, other than that I got a marriage proposal on it once.

I have nothing else to add...