Where free speech hits a limit

The Guardian reports:

A 55-year-old woman has been arrested in relation to a social media post containing inaccurate information about the identity of the suspect in the Southport murders.

The woman, from near Chester, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred and false communications. She is being held in custody by Cheshire police.

This has generated a lot of heat in the UK. If someone knowingly states something false along the lines of “The killer is an asylum seeker” or “The killer is Muslim” then that is false and inciting. Someone tried to burn down a hotel of asylum seekers.

But if someone else has tweeted this, and you simply retweet it because you honestly thought it was true, that is not a good use of criminal law.

So the details in this case matter.