Sadiq Khan’s £1.7million online police unit brought just six trolls to justice in two years despite £1.7million of public money
LONDON Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s online police unit brought just six trolls to justice in two years.
He championed the Online Hate Crime Hub in a bid to prevent abusive comments.
It was given £1.7million in public money — more than £450,000 from the Home Office and the rest from Scotland Yard.
Critics blasted it as “the thought police” or “like Big Brother”.
But the “Twitter squad” — staffed by five Scotland Yard officers including a senior detective — had a handful of successful prosecutions.
These include trolls found guilty of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic posts.
One offender was given a suspended jail sentence, but the rest escaped with community orders, fines and a restraining order.
London police and crime committee member Susan Hall said it was an “exercise in spin over substance”.
She added: “This is money that could have been used to invest in additional police officers and protect Londoners from a whole host of crimes.”
The Sun Says
FOR years he’s lectured us all about having too little money to fight knife crime.
But could it be that London Mayor Sadiq Khan spent it all on meaningless initiatives?
Take the results from his Online Hate Crime Hub.
His so-called “Twitter squad” was given £1.7million of public funds to tackle social media abuse.
The result? Six internet trolls brought to justice — none jailed.
City Hall dealt with two cases a day — with a team of five Scotland Yard officers, one a detective.
What a fiasco.
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