🚨🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Animal rights campaigner, Anneka Svenska, was visited at home by two police officers and told to accept a police record, attend an “online thinking” course, or face arrest following comments she made on social media about the incineration of beagles at a company that breeds the dogs for use in medical research. The police alleged that she had committed a crime under the Online Safety Act. Anneka refused to accept this “community resolution disposal”, which would have remained on her police record, and, after she engaged a lawyer, the case has now been dropped. Section 179 of the Online Safety Act was introduced by the last Conservative Government and made it a crime, punishable by up to 51 weeks in prison, to knowingly spread false information likely to cause harm. While the Bill was going through Parliament, the FSU warned it might be weaponised in this way to silence legitimate political speech. Anneka doesn’t believe the information she spread about the company was false. In fact, she has documentary evidence which she says substantiates her claims. Until the Online Safety Act was passed, the company unhappy about comments like this would have had to bring a defamation claim in the civil courts. Now, it seems, hurty words online can quickly become a police matter – and it seems that companies are now making criminal complaints as part of their brand protection strategies. If you are visited by the police for a speech matter, we’d urge you to take specialist legal advice before accepting any form of caution or submitting to a re-education course. Members of the Free Speech Union can ask for our help if they find themselves in a similar situation.