this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
234 points (96.1% liked)

World News

39041 readers
2836 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

First minister calls for end to vexatious reports after far-right agitators attempt to ‘overwhelm’ official systems

Neo-Nazi and far-right agitators are exploiting Scotland’s new hate crime law to make vexatious complaints en masse in an attempt to “overwhelm” police systems.

A prominent figure in England’s white nationalist movement is among those urging followers to spam Police Scotland with anonymous online reports, the *Observer *has found.

The leader of a far-right group – one of several fringe organisations being assessed by the UK government under its new extremism definition – promoted a private channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that includes a “call to action” urging members to “mass report”.

Posts in the channel instruct members to log cases of supposed “anti-white” hate, which they say includes a statement on the police force’s website that “young men aged 18-30 are most likely to commit hate crime”.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Olap@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Anonymous complaints are a terrible idea. No wlnder this has been targetted

[–] Minotaur@lemm.ee 51 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Anonymous complaints are a good thing, it’s often important to be able to report something non-publicly. It’s just being exploited here.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 7 points 7 months ago

The fact that this system can be exploited by neo Nazis should tell you that it can be exploited by anyone. Including the cops who will be investigating these complaints.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

Non-public and anonymous are not the same thing. I don't know about your jurisdiction but when you file a criminal complaint police do take down your name and address, if you're worried about retaliation or such there's ways to have all public records under a pseudonym and e.g. your lawyer's address, but the state will still know who you actually are.

You can also give an anonymous tip to the police -- but those don't ever reach the level of complaint. Police and prosecutors can toss such a statement without much fanfare, even if they don't they can't follow-up with questions, you're way less credible as a witness, especially since you can't be nailed for false accusation, at least not without investigators hunting you down. You can't file an accessory suit (that is, be a co-prosecutor) because courts definitely don't deal with anonymous people, if they anonymise the public record then because they think it's the right thing to do to serve justice, not because you don't want to show your face to at least the judge(s).