The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Twitter

Two men arrested for inciting ‘racial or religious hatred’ on Twitter with tweets about Lee Rigby

Author

By Ishbel Macleod, PR and social media consultant

May 24, 2013 | 1 min read

Two men have been arrested for on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred following statements posted on Twitter about the murder of Lee Rigby.

Avon and Somerset Police made the arrests following complaints from members of the public about the tweets.

Detective Inspector Ed Yaxley said in a statement: "The men were arrested under the Public Order Act on suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred. Our inquiries into these comments continue.

"These comments were directed against a section of our community. Comments such as these are completely unacceptable and only cause more harm to our community in Bristol.

"People should stop and think about what they say on social media before making statements as the consequences could be serious."

According to Sky News, the men arrested are aged 22 and 23, and come from Bristol. They were arrested in the early hours of this morning.

Almost 500,000 tweets were send about the incident in the 24 hours after the attack.

Twitter

More from Twitter

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +