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8 tweets,
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So, an unofficial/personal @metpoliceuk officer account is being quoted, by mainstream media, to tell the public to "ignore any tweets" from the official account after it was (apparently) compromised.
Time to start talking about heavily regulating law enforcement social media.
Time to start talking about heavily regulating law enforcement social media.
@metpoliceuk Seems abundantly clear that law enforcement officers should be forbidden from maintaining social media accounts unless authorized in an official capacity. Any unofficial account is a demonstrable public safety risk.
@metpoliceuk The idea that there are explicitly unofficial/"personal" law enforcement social media accounts that can override the official ones is an idea that should be subject to extreme public scrutiny.
Is there an official list of these accounts? When are they to be deferred to?
Is there an official list of these accounts? When are they to be deferred to?
@metpoliceuk What I am saying is, @metpoliceuk issued an official press release saying "FUCK THE POLICE" and until an official press release revising that I think we have to consider any other statements suspect. 
@metpoliceuk The power to say "don't trust this official account" is a recipe for outright atrocities in the wrong hands and should be subject to the highest standards of accountability.
@metpoliceuk Also...as far as I can tell all the media reporting on this as being a hack are relying on (or at least only publicly citing) unofficial accounts e.g. BBC and Sky News.
Sky News even hedges with "appears" to hacked.
Public safety nightmare waiting to happen.
Sky News even hedges with "appears" to hacked.
Public safety nightmare waiting to happen.
@metpoliceuk Even @/roysmithpolice's profile, unverified fwiw, explicitly states that he does not speak for @metpoliceuk
I really can't overstate the harm that could be caused by the media quoting unofficial accounts telling the public to ignore tweets from an official account could cause.
I really can't overstate the harm that could be caused by the media quoting unofficial accounts telling the public to ignore tweets from an official account could cause.
@metpoliceuk Terrifying that these orgs also lobby for mass deployment of face-recognition enabled surveillance systems and swear they can definitely be trusted with exceptional access-enabled crypto systems.
