Ukip pressured me to take down a tweet – and now I'm really up for a fight

Ukip pressured me to take down a tweet – and now I'm really up for a fight
Oppressors though history have always feared a well-informed population, and this attempt to curtail my right to free expression is too much – it's time to act



It was Saturday afternoon, and I was in the middle of watching a rather bad film when I was distracted by a young police officer peering through my net curtains. What happened next was even more bizarre. Two police officers, while reminding me on several occasions that I had nothing to fear and no case to answer, asked me to "take down" a tweet I had sent about Ukip – but they couldn't force me take it down as I had "freedom of speech". I was also asked not to tweet about the fact they had been round to my house to do this, but again they couldn't stop me.

I only realised what had actually happened after they had left. If it wasn't a police matter, and I had broken no law. Why had they come to my home in the middle of the afternoon? It was alarming that a political party not even in office would seek to exercise this type of censorship and could wield such power.

The next tweet I sent was a quote from article 10 of the Human Rights Act. But I did self-censor: I removed the instances of the initial tweet that I could find. Then I contacted some friends for advice, and their help and support was invaluable. But I still didn't feel right; I couldn't settle, as my father would say.

So I wrote the story on my Facebook page (which is restricted), and someone broke it from there. It immediately started to go viral. I wrote my blog (which gets an average of five weekly hits) and tweeted a link to it and the title. And I felt a whole lot better.

By Tuesday evening, my blog had 125,000 hits – more than 12,000 from the US alone. My Twitter followers have jumped from just over a hundred, mostly friends and acquaintances, to more than 2,000.

My story has been covered in every newspaper from the Morning Star to the Daily Telegraph, and now the Green peer Jenny Jones has asked the home secretary to conduct an immediate investigation into police procedures in Cambridgeshire.

This is an example of the Streisand effect. Ukip policies are no longer the issue – people all over the world who (perhaps incredibly) have no idea who Nigel Farage is are, are retweeting and sharing the original tweet simply because Ukip tried to suppress it.

Thousands of people across the globe recognise this for what it undoubtedly is – a deliberate attempt by Ukip to curtail my human right to free expression; to silence dissent, to censor. Also concerning is that the tweet they wanted to remove was a poster someone had made that I fact-checked. It contained links only to official Ukip websites and the party's EU voting record. I even clearly indicated those allegations that had no basis. I simply presented it, and invited people to go to those websites and read.

The thing that oppressors throughout history have feared more than anything is a well-informed population able to discuss, challenge, and spread ideas in order to learn the truth for themselves.

I've realised why I couldn't settle. My father taught me to fight bullies when I was a kid. I had stopped fighting. Never again.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/14/ukip-pressured-me-take-down-tweet-curtail-free-expression

Apparently the police has since apologised to him. So I should think.

Differing views on the matter:
http://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/25b9bf/guy_debunks_ukip_poster_on_twitter_is_visited_by/

Mr Abberton, who works as an assessor for an exam board, used his Twitter account last week to post a spoof Ukip poster, which supposedly listed the party’s policies. The poster had originally been produced by an online activist who was unknown to Mr Abberton.

He added: ‘When they asked me to take the tweet down they said obviously we can’t force you to do that because of freedom of speech.’

A police spokesman said officers had intervened because the post was sent out a fortnight before European and local elections. He added: ‘Inquiries were made as to whether any offences had been committed under the Representation of the People Act but none were revealed and no further action was taken.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2626218/MP-condemns-police-sending-two-officers-home-Twitter-user-criticised-UKIP.html#ixzz31iVt2uVx

Hardly jackbooted persecution!!!

Really, police officers sent to house to ask him to take it down. You think that is normal or even ok Tess. So what if they arrived at your door asking to to take down a post. I honestly can't see you being too impressed.

Sassy wrote:Really, police officers sent to house to ask him to take it down.   You think that is normal or even ok Tess.   So what if they arrived at your door asking to to take down a post.   I honestly can't see you being too impressed.

Well when I first saw the poster I did wonder if it was a legal thing - after all he used the proper UKIP logo and anyone looking at it would think those ridiculous "policies" were actual real ones. I don't think you can go round using people's logos/trademarks and purport to be them, can you? I wonder what the Labour party would do if a UKIP 'activist' put up a poster with the Labour party logo and full of lying bullshit?

Tesstacious wrote:

Sassy wrote:Really, police officers sent to house to ask him to take it down.   You think that is normal or even ok Tess.   So what if they arrived at your door asking to to take down a post.   I honestly can't see you being too impressed.

Well when I first saw the poster I did wonder if it was a legal thing - after all he used the proper UKIP logo and anyone looking at it would think those ridiculous "policies" were actual real ones.  I don't think you can go round using people's logos/trademarks and purport to be them, can you?  I wonder what the Labour party would do if a UKIP 'activist' put up a poster with the Labour party logo and full of lying bullshit?

People do it all the time and the police already apologised and said they had no right to do it.

I'm fascinated a party that often appears to complain "political correctness" is stifling freedom of speech would respond to a tweet they disliked by calling the police.

lovedust wrote:
I'm fascinated a party that often appears to complain "political correctness" is stifling freedom of speech would respond to a tweet they disliked by calling the police.

You and me both!