Twitter is giving the term “jailbird” a whole new meaning, and according to a new UK study, crime on the social network has increased 390 percent since 2011.
In 2011, there were 174 crimes involving Twitter users, and in 2013 that number jumped to 852.
However, while Facebook didn’t see as large of an increase, it sees significantly more crime with 9,917 cases in 2011, and 13,019 in 2013.
According to Daily Mail, these new findings came from 25 different police forces through a Freedom of Information request.
From Steven George-Hilley, director of technology at think tank Parliament Street:
“Every police officer should be equipped with the very latest cyber skills backed up by tougher sentences for online offences to ensure criminals do not gain the upper hand.”
However, director of Big Brother Watch Nick Pickles disagrees, and believes crimes committed online should be treated no differently:
“The last thing we need is the police spending more time snooping on people’s tweets and abandoning all common sense because something involves new technology. Social media is an essential part of how people communicate and crimes should be prosecuted the same whether it happens on or offline.”
After all, you are innocent until proven guilty, and Kent police for example only ended up criminally charging 26 out of 191 individuals linked to Twitter in 2013.
Photo credit: Alan Cleaver via photopin cc
0 Comments