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The Free Speech Union

@SpeechUnion

Nov 16

In response to freedom of information requests, police forces across Britain have revealed that 'non-crime hate incidents' (NCHIs) are being logged against people in authority doing their jobs. Examples include:

❌ An NCHI recorded against a doctor in West Yorkshire after a patient alleged they were misdiagnosed "because they were bisexual".

❌ A journalist's article about his interview with a "deaf and dumb" scooterist being reported to the police as a hate incident.

❌ A social worker was also reported to the police in Lancashire over claims she had abused her position and racially discriminated against the victim by preventing her from seeing her children.

freespeechunion.org/doctors-and-vi…

In 2014, the College of Policing — a taxpayer-funded quango — came up with the concept of the NCHI in its 'Hate Crime Operational Guidance'. As defined in this document, an NCHI is any incident perceived by the victim or any bystanders to be motivated by hostility or prejudice to the victim based on a 'protected' characteristic (race or perceived race, religion or perceived religion, and so on).

For the avoidance of doubt, non-crime hate incidents really are as Orwellian as they sound. They aren't anonymised, and sit forever against the names of the alleged perpetrators without any real investigation or right of appeal. In addition, if one is recorded against your name it can show up on an enhanced criminal records check and prevent you from getting a job.

That's right, you might not get a job because someone 'perceives' you've committed a 'non-crime'.

Here's a short 🧵detailing some of the most egregious of the 250,000+ NCHIs we estimate the police in England and Wales have logged since 2014...

In June 2022, Wiltshire Police opened a non-crime hate incident file when an 11-year-old boy was called "shorty" and "leprechaun" in the street by another boy.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

Hampshire Police dispatched five officers to arrest army veteran Darren Brady following a complaint that he'd reposted a meme created by Laurence Fox depicting the Pride flag as a swastika.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

Read 17 tweets

The Free Speech Union

@SpeechUnion

Nov 13

FSU member and Telegraph journalist @AllisonPearson is facing a police investigation over an X post from last year — a member of the public complained, and officers initially logged it as an Orwellian 'non-crime hate incident' (NCHI). Needless to say, we're providing our member with support.

telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/1…

For the avoidance of doubt, NCHIs really are as Orwellian as they sound — if one is recorded against your name it can show up on an enhanced criminal records check and prevent you from getting a job.

That's right, you might not get a job because you've committed a 'non-crime'.

Since 2014, a quarter of a million NCHIs have been recorded in England and Wales alone — an average of more than 65 a day.

Because of their obvious chilling effect on free speech, in 2023 the then home secretary @SuellaBraverman raised the threshold for police recording of NCHIs. Under this guidance, officers are now only supposed to record a NCHI if the incident is "clearly motivated by intentional hostility".

thecritic.co.uk/the-return-of-…

Would it surprise you to learn that the new Code of Practice, which was intended to reduce the rate of NCHI recording and put it on a lawful footing, appears not to have been shared with officers on the ground?

The FSU recently submitted FOI requests to all 43 police forces in England and Wales to find out if the number of NCHIs they were recording had gone down since the new Code of Practice was introduced in June 2023.

According to our analysis of the data we got back, the number being recorded has actually INCREASED.

Overall, the increase was 1.6%, but in certain regions it increased by much more. Across the 16 regions which saw an increase (out of 29 we analysed, covering 73% of the population of England and Wales), the number recorded has gone up by 28.2% since parliament legislated to bring the number down.

Full briefing below.

freespeechunion.org/police-still-w…

Read 4 tweets

The Free Speech Union

@SpeechUnion

Nov 11

Attempts are underway across Europe to police what football fans — and players — say about matters of ongoing public debate, and curtail their #freedomofexpression.

Suddenly, 'the beautiful game' has become the battleground in the latest fight to defend #freespeech.

Here's a 🧵 detailing some of the highest-profile cases the FSU has come across over the past 12 month.

In France, Monaco FC midfielder Mohamed Camara was suspended for four games after covering up an LGBT badge on his shirt during a match.

Following Camara's refusal to comply, French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said the player should be subject to "the strongest sanctions".

thecritic.co.uk/the-football-w…

This isn't a one-off aberration — in fact, the French League's move to sanction Camera is just the latest troubling sign that football authorities across Europe are seeking to impose a radically 'progressive' equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda that, in its headlong rush to protect the rights of certain pre-identified 'vulnerable' and 'marginalised' groups, infringes the rights of others to freedom of expression as established by both Strasbourg jurisprudence and national case law.

Last year, for instance, Nantes striker Mostafa Mohamed refused to wear a rainbow flag-themed shirt during a game against Toulouse — having sat out the match, he was fined by his club, which then pointedly donated the money to a local LGBT charity.
apnews.com/article/nantes…

Read 7 tweets

The Free Speech Union

@SpeechUnion

Oct 29

1/4 BREAKING: As you may have seen, the teenager accused of murdering three young girls in Southport has been charged with possessing a military study of an Al-Qaeda training manual, and the manufacture of ricin poison. Read our statement below.

freespeechunion.org/southport-atta…

The mass stabbing perpetrated by Axel Rudakubana targeted children at a Taylor Swift dance workshop in Southport on Monday, July 29th. Along with the fatalities there were 10 people injured, including eight children. On July 30th and over subsequent days there were outbreaks of civil disorder in England and Northern Ireland.

We suspect some of the prosecutions of people for saying supposedly inflammatory things on social media may now be unsafe — for instance, the man in Cumbria sentenced to eight weeks in jail for reposting three allegedly ‘Islamophobic’ memes on Facebook. At the very least, it may be grounds for appealing their often draconian jail sentences.

And what about the many people arrested in August for social media posts about the Southport attack who came under enormous pressure from the police to plead guilty? Did the police know at that time that the news about the link to an Islamist training manual would eventually come out and that once it had it would be more difficult to persuade a jury to convict these people? If so, that may be a good basis for a law suit.

We’ve provided legal assistance to several of our members who did get into difficulty over the summer for saying things about the Southport attack on social media, including a Royal Marines veteran prosecuted for a Facebook video who has pleaded not guilty. His trial is forthcoming and we’re paying for a solicitor and a barrister...

2/4 If you’re planning to say something on social media about today’s news, we have published some FAQs on online offences related to civil disorder — if you’re an FSU member, you can access them at the link below.

The FAQs offer some guidance on what you can and can’t say without getting into trouble.freespeechunion.org/online-offence…

3/4 In light of today’s news, we also wanted to remind you that the FSU has an arrangement in place with a top criminal solicitor, Luke Gittos, whereby you can call him if you’re contacted by the police in connection with comments you’ve made on social media about the Southport attacks and subsequent civil unrest.

We have now extended that arrangement to include comments made about today’s news.

We’ve provided legal assistance to several of our members who did get into difficulty over the summer for saying things about the Southport attack on social media, including a Royal Marines veteran prosecuted for a Facebook video who has pleaded not guilty. His trial is forthcoming and we’re paying for a solicitor and a barrister.

We also stepped in to support Bernadette Spofforth (@Artemisfornow) after she was arrested and held in custody for 36 hours for wrongly identifying the Southport attacker as a Muslim asylum seeker — the case against her has now been dropped.

Read 4 tweets

The Free Speech Union

@SpeechUnion

Oct 12

🚨BREAKING: Pub landlords will be turned into 'banter police', venues will be less likely to book edgy performers, and universities will be gifted a lawful reason to rescind invitations to controversial guest speakers under reforms to workers' rights that form part of the government's ongoing war on free speech.

Provisions in the draft Employment Rights Bill mean the Equality Act 2010 will be updated to make employers liable for staff being offended by third parties, such as customers or members of the public.

This will have disastrous consequences for #freedomofspeech, impose huge compliance costs on Britain's one-and-a-half million businesses, further the encroachment into our lives of a philosophy of mindless compliance, and bring Starmer-esque joylessness to areas where we were once able to enjoy life — the Telegraph has the story.

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/…

Needless to say, the FSU will be campaigning against these provisions, briefing supporters across both Houses of Parliament on the threat they pose to free speech and #freedomofexpression.

Here's a quick explainer thread...

The Equality Act already makes employers liable for breaches of the Equality Act by employees (but not third parties).

The leap made in Labour's Employment Rights Bill is to apply this regime to harassment by third parties — employers will be vicariously liable for harassment that their employees suffer at the hands of third parties (i.e., members of the public) in the course of employment.

In other words, employers will have a duty to protect their workers from overhearing 'upsetting' remarks made not only by their colleagues, but by members of the public as well.

Across the retail, hospitality, entertainment and academic sectors, businesses will thus have a legitimate legal interest in policing what members of the public say — what we now think of as every day, casual and fundamentally private speech will be governed by formal codes of conduct and scrutinised for its potential legal consequences.

This is an unacceptable bid to legalise the interactions of day-to-day life.

Under the Equality Act, employers had a defence against a claim of third-party harassment if they could show they had taken "such steps as would have been reasonably practicable" to prevent the harassment.

However, under Labour's bill this defence only applies if the employer can show it has taken "all reasonable steps" to prevent the breach — a higher threshold that will encourage businesses to err on the side of caution in regulating what their customers say and do while on the premises.

Read 6 tweets

The Free Speech Union

@SpeechUnion

Sep 1

🚨 BREAKING: We've written to the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper threatening to take her to the High Court over her plan to force police officers to record more 'non-crime hate incidents' (NCHIs)!

👊 We're not prepared to stand idly by while this Labour Government takes us back to the bad old days when the subjective perception of 'hatred' was enough to have your name and address logged in a police database. Details on NCHIs are below.

🤐 If you're worried about the Government's continuing, extrajudicial onslaught on civil liberties, now might be a good time to become an FSU member. Click the link, join the resistance.

🚔 For the avoidance of doubt, 'non-crime hate incidents' really are as Orwellian as they sound — if one is recorded against your name it can show up on an enhanced criminal records check and prevent you from getting a job. That's right, you might not get a job because someone perceives you've committed a 'non-crime'.

🧵 Here's a short thread detailing some of the most egregious of the 250,000+ NCHIs we estimate the police in England and Wales have logged since 2014...thesun.co.uk/news/politics/…
thecritic.co.uk/the-return-of-…
freespeechunion.org/join/

In June 2022, Wiltshire Police opened a non-crime hate incident file when an 11-year-old boy was called "shorty" and "leprechaun" in the street by another boy.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

Read 17 tweets

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