A man has been jailed for a “concerning” social media post ahead of far-right calls for disorder in Brighton on Wednesday
Preparations for potential protest activity has included the monitoring and review of a huge amount of online information.
Police said they were made aware of a concerning social media post on Tuesday, which included a number of references to violent disorder linked to the proposed event on Wednesday.
No details of what was in the post, or what platform it was made on, were released by police.
Two men from Worthing – aged 42 and 45 – were arrested.
Joseph Clark, 45, of Hayling Rise in Worthing, was charged with sending by public communication network an offensive message.
He was found guilty at Brighton Magistrates’ Court today (9 August) and sentenced to 14 weeks in prison, order to pay £85 in costs and a £154 victim surcharge.
The 42-year-old man has been released with no further action to be taken.
Assistant Chief Constable Paul Court said: “This custodial sentence should send a clear message to anyone involved in disorder – either online or on the streets – that they will swiftly face the full force of the law.
“The recent unrest seen across the country has been fuelled by threatening, abusive online messages. Those messages have real world consequences, and those who send them cannot hide behind their keyboards.
“Our preparations are ongoing into reports of planned events across Sussex and we will continue to engage with our communities and provide a visible, reassuring presence.
“Please report any concerns to Sussex Police online or via 101, quoting Operation Skylark.”
Welcome to the new Starmer facist state. What happened to
‘I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It’
Starmer hasn’t changed the law mate. It’s been the law since the Tories introduced the Online Communications Act 2023 on 31 January 2024. So get your facts right and try blaming the right people heh mate?
You absolutely have a right to say hate filled things, and that right comes with the repercussions of consequence, obviously. Having to explain that to a grown adult in this day and age is depressing.
I’d love to see an online law that prohibits Benjamin from commenting on nearly every single post on here as he doesn’t have the ability to live life in the real world.
I noticed that. Careful, we might hurt his feelings🤣
You did a funny.
Maybe, but not with basic level insults, lol. Tools of someone who can’t debate with intelligence, unfortunately.
And the hate-filled antisemitic rhetoric at the Pro-Palestinian marchers? Oh, but hat doesn’t count in the current 2 tier system, does it?
It is not difficult to see the consequences of that.
It’s not antisemitic to be pro Palestine.
Once again for the hard of understanding, rhetoric is not illegal, incitement to rioting and looting is illegal.
These chaps were well within their rights to organise a protest against immigration. They could have marched around to their hearts’ content with hateful banners against immigrants. But they didn’t. They tried to organise a riot and they are being rightfully punished for it.
Far left in a nutshell: You have the freedom of speech, only if you agree me.
Inciting violence is always illegal, whether onlineor in person. Something the right-wing keyboard warriors might consider.
Are you inciting hate by accusing me of being “far right”? Isn’t that hate speech? I’ve seen plenty of far left anarchist spread hate and violence. Like the recent MP of Dartford, Ricky Jones. Saying we should cut the thr0@ts of the far right. What’s your excuse for that?
You mean the councillor (not mp) who was arrested…he was arrested…and pretty much everyone who agrees with his politics said he should be…do you not realise that proves the opposite point to the one you want to make?
And calling someone far right is not incitement to violence, which is what you get arrested for…which you k ow because the previous poster said ‘Inciting violence’ and you responded by mentioning ‘inciting hate’.
If you are born far right, and it is an uncontrollable fact of your birth, I would agree people should be held accountable for hate towards that…but it’s not, as not all crimes involving hate are hate crimes. I know that is confusing, but don’t get angry just because you can’t understand things…
“There is no general right to free speech in the UK… Current law allows for restrictions on threatening or abusive words or behaviour intending or likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress or cause a breach of the peace, sending another any article which is indecent or grossly offensive with an intent to cause distress or anxiety, incitement, incitement to racial hatred, incitement to religious hatred,” etc. Wikipedia.
You don’t have freedom of speech and you never have. It’s another lie you’ve been told to get your head messed up. The likes of Farage and “Robinson” lie to you and you suck it up. Yaxley-Lennon is sunning himself in Cyprus, while hefty donations from far-right promoters in the US and Russia have made him millions.
Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequence. Never has been. Never will be. No political leaning required.
Refugees welcome here….. Say the left wing and pro Palestine banners.
Great, but don’t start moaning when we have even worse public services and more expensive housing
You’re so close to joining the dots about the diminished public realm under the previous administration.
Expensive houses is simply a consequence of a lack of building houses moreso than any other reason.
How do you build homes for the 700k immigrants that have poured in last year? Just magically build more homes?
Rapid change over a short period is and will cause further social chaos. I’m not condoning the riots or the “far right”. I’m just warning you that mass immigration has and will have a knock-on affect on everyones lives, including none white minority groups. We cannot practically build homes at a rapid scale, that’s the reason we havent done so in the last 30 years. Since immigration levels started increasing faster then before.
Building homes isn’t as easy as saying just build more homes. You need community approval, material resources, human resources, funding and then the buyers, renters etc etc.
Homelessness has sky rocketed in the last 6 years which correlates with the increase of immigration numbers during the same time. Like us, the USA & Canada are pro mass-immigration and they’ve had a massive spike in homelessness along with crime statistics in recent times. See a pattern forming?
I’m not white but even I see that lack of immigration control is and will continue to be worsening social issue.
Even if we removed immigration completely, we still would have a severe housing shortage. Therefore, the most pressing local issue is house building, more so than any other reason, in my opinion.
In answer to your question, turning more local, in 2023 in Brighton, we had about ~450 homes built, but according to the Chartered Institute of Housing, the city needs along the lines of 1,200 being built year on year to meet demand. Which, considering the city’s geographical limitations, resident disapproval, and ageing housing stock, this will continue to remain a difficult challenge.
I would kindly warn that homelessness has increased in line with average house prices, wage-to-rent ratios, and population growth as well. Collaboration is famously known not to guarantee causation, and there are plenty of other aspects that also need to be considered as well, many of which are improved with additional housing. So I’m afraid I don’t see a pattern you are referring to, I would suggest that is minimalistic and potentially a confirmation bias.
It’s also to consider trends. With limitations being put in place on family visas for international students and raising salary thresholds for work visas, it is expected to see reduced net migration numbers significantly compared to the previous year’s 606,000 according to ONS. You also have to factor in natural changes (deaths/births), which as of the latest figures sits at about -246,000 according to ONS. So, there is certainly a reasonable argument to be made for some immigration to balance that out; and perhaps why the central government is considering a policy that promotes and makes having children more affordable?
So housing would be affordable if only we kept building housing to keep at pace with population increase. So why haven’t we been able do this since the 90’s? It’s obviously a practical impossibility otherwise we would have done it.
If building 1,200 houses in Brighton annually seems like a difficult task, why are we allowing more immigration? Should we not pause on immigration at least until we don’t have a housing shortage? Isn’t adding people to a demographic that is already severely short in housing just adding to the problem of even more shortages which will keep increasing house prices and rent? I ask the same questions to the UK as whole.
House prices and rent has increased due to the simple basics of supply and demand. Too many people after too few houses. As I’ve said mass immigration is only adding to this chaos and proportionality to the prices of everything (cost of living) else. You can’t live in a society that is overpopulated but expect everything to be affordable, available or even cheap.
We already know we can’t build houses on a rapid scale. That’s been proved by looking at the results for the last 30 years or more of housing supply. Which has led to an increase of house prices and rent which makes it unaffordable to buy homes or rent mainly at the detriment of the working class who then end up on the streets because they are competing for the same resources including work opportunities as immigrants. So, again low wages prove to be rooted back to mass immigration.
I have taken account of natural factors. I have only been referring to net immigration which of course takes all other factors of change into account. If you have depleting resources and an increase in demand someone somewhere will be suffering because of it and it seems it’s the white working class who is that someone for now.
*So, again low wages and homelessness prove to be rooted back to mass immigration.
The idea that we should pause immigration to solve the housing crisis overlooks several key factors. Housing shortages aren’t just about population growth; they’re also about policy failures, planning constraints, and market dynamics. The UK hasn’t been able to keep pace with housing needs largely due to restrictive planning laws, underinvestment in public housing, and a lack of political will to confront vested interests in the housing market, not because of immigration.
Blaming immigrants for housing shortages is a red herring. Immigrants contribute significantly to the economy, including in construction and public services, and they pay taxes that fund public services, including housing initiatives. Stopping immigration wouldn’t automatically free up houses or lower prices; it would likely harm the economy and reduce the workforce, exacerbating problems like low wages and poor services.
The solution lies in comprehensive housing reform: relaxing planning laws, incentivising affordable housing development, and investing in social housing. Addressing these root causes will have a far greater impact on housing affordability than blaming immigration. The working class deserves real solutions, not divisive rhetoric.
They all say refugees welcome but not in my house or my neighbourhood. Just send them near white working class areas. Now pat me on the back and give me virtue points while I go and do my middle/rich class leisurely stuff. 🤷♂️
I’m not saying there isn’t an issue with illegal immigration or to some extent legal immigration.
People have genuine concerns. Their views and concerns need to be listened to. Politicians need to put workable solutions on the table.
I don’t have the answer to this complex matter, I’m not that smart, but I do know the answer isn’t violence, destroying our towns and cities, and inciting hate filled communities.
It’s not about left or right ideology it’s about being a decent, well balanced human being.
I’m not sure two tier Keir is the man with any ideas – people will continue to protest.
Islam is not a race so no racism issues here. We should remember the hydith in the koran that permits muslims to lie to non believers.
Legal protest is ok. No violence, no destruction, no hate. It’s not difficult to understand.
“Hadith”, I think you’ll find. By definition not in Al-Koran, but part of a scholarly tradition, handed down after the death of Mohammed, PBUH.
“Taqiyyah is a ruling that allows Muslims to conceal their faith only if they are under the threat of religious persecution or fear for their life. And Islamic doctrine strongly condemns dishonesty.” Yaqeen Institute.
Basically, Muslims believe they shouldn’t lie, but some circumstances are recognised where it’s more understandable if they do.
And “Islam is not a race so no racism issues here.” Seriously? You’re a joke.
If you have the internet, ignorance is a choice.
The far right are the same as the far left, minus the rainbows. Both are extremists, both are violent,
Citation needed. Ideally, a statistical analysis of far right versus far left prosecutions and convictions since 2016.
To be fair, moderate views are always preferable to extremist views. As the saying goes, everything in moderation.
Strange how the Right Wing don’t understand the not so subtle difference between rioting and a march. They must have been out in force defending the Tottenham riots in 2011, it’s just that they did it so quietly we couldn’t hear them. Now all of a sudden they are surprised you get locked up for incitement and Hate speech. The fact that Starmer has stopped the riots in their tracks is wonderful to see. We wanted our country back and he did that for us.
But a country he is surrendering to a foreign deity. Good luck with feminism and LGBT+ after that.
You don’t want blur the story with truth. Those who shout that they welcome migrants will be upset and we can’t have that. All migrants are said to be lovely peaceful people, all wishing to integrate and contribute.
But all swifities in Austria will have noticed those that planed to attack the concert were migrants of a particular belief group. Taylor Swift of course does not wear a head covering , so I suppose that makes her Haram!
Jail the BBC. They are stoking riots more than anyone else and telling everyone where they are and at what time.
What a ridiculous notion. Information is different to incitement, Barry.
I personally would love it if we could just stop this already.
Just look at the comments here. On the plus side, this is not the Brighton we live in.
The guy in this news article took his views too far, and he allegedly suggested damaging property and a violent response – spreading his views on social media, and with ideas based on information he himself had gathered via the internet. And that is why he has been made an example of, and jailed, not because of what he thinks and believes, but because he is encouraging violence and mayhem, and that’s a step too far. An illegal step too far.
.
For sure we might yet have some sympathy, for those who are just pawns in these modern culture wars, often fed by fake information.
We know now that Nigel Farage was also one of those spreading fake information – and he even admitted his own source for ‘truth’ was Andrew Tate, the alleged sex trafficker and online liar.
In many ways that reactionary approach, feeding off fears, is exactly the same tactic Trump used when he encouraged thugs to march on Washington, based on the lie that they had lost the election after a due democratic process had taken place, but where Trump’s ego couldn’t accept the simple fact that he had lost.
In the recent UK election, voters similarly rejected the right wing views, and the economic policies and egos of recent years.
But the anger remains across the UK, as a schism,. and that will continue to divides us. People (including me) are struggling right now, mostly financially – and it’s that financial inequality and lack of opportunity we need to deal with in the longer term.
It’s also that struggle, in paying the bills, that makes so many people angry, and wanting to point the finger of blame.
In that vacuum, there’s nothing new in pointing the finger at people you can’t relate to – be they new residents you notice and people who might look different. Under Hitler it was minorities like the Jews and the Gypsies and the Gays. And now there are the Muslims, and the Buddhists, and the Polish builders, and the Iraqi or Syrian or Rwandan refugees.
All these riots and attacks, in the streets or online, make me want to vomit – mostly because it sets good people against each other.
It’s our economy that actually needs fixing, so that people can feel once again that they can find a place to live that doesn’t soak up all their income. They also want a world which offers a safe and comfortable future for their kids.
But this won’t be achieved via lies on the internet, or after community buildings are looted and burnt down, or after angry words and lies spread on the internet. .
“Setting good against each other”, do you include followers in those good people? You should know there is a hydith in the koran that expressly permits believers to lie to non believers. Some people who have invited themselves into our country are maybe not do good. Many detest our culture and values and given sufficient numbers seek to impose their beliefs and culture that is incompatible with our history and values.
Followers of the prophet = mohamed.