Police knock on journalist's door over year-old social media post
Essex police started probe into Telegraph writerʼs old social-media message from last year. Officers showed up at her house on remembrance sunday morning to question about alleged hate speech
Allison Pearson‚ a well-known Telegraph writer got an unexpected visit from law-enforcement on remembrance sunday morning (wearing just her slippers and house-robe)
Two officers came to her house at 9:40 to tell her about a year-old social-media post investigation; they didnt share what exactly she wrote. The post was from the time of mid-east events in oct-2023 when she made comments about pro-palestinian street actions
Essex police confirmed theyʼre checking possible racial-hatred content under Public Order Act section 17 (the post was already deleted from X platform). The officers wanted her to come for a non-mandatory talk but couldnt tell what she posted — which made the whole thing feel like a kafka-style process
I was accused of a non-crime hate incident. It was to do with something I had posted on X a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred apparently
The timing matches with policy changes about hate-speech rules. Former home-sec Suella Braverman made it harder to record non-crime hate stuff but current leadership might change this back. Essex force only solved 14.3% of real crimes this year but still finds time for social-media checks
As Home Secretary I changed the rules on recording non-crime hate incidents to protect freedom of speech. The police should not be policing opinions on social media
Toby Young from Free Speech Union pointed out that Essex police cant solve 93% of car-related crimes while spending time on checking old posts
