The Daily Mail have printed a “wildly misleading” front page about so-called ‘thought police’ apparently turning up at someone’s house.
On Sunday (February 23), the newspaper printed a front page with the headline ‘Come out, it’s the thought police.’ The paper accompanied the headline with the caption stating that detectives had called on a grandmother for criticising Labour councillors on Facebook.
However, the front page has been called out on social media, with people pointing out how this in fact incredibly misleading.”
Writing on X, one person said: “Another day, another wildly misleading Daily Mail headline. I mean, it certainly would be headline worthy if police had turned up and accused her of committing a crime by writing innocent FB posts. But that’s not what happened…”
They explained police had actually come to her house to let her know she was subject to a complaint of harassment, which they have a duty to do. At no point did officers accuse her of a crime.
The article included comments from the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Ian Duncan Smith, Toby Young and Chris Philp, who complain of ‘thought police’ and blame Starmer for people being ‘investigated for critical tweets’ – which is not what happened.
In fact, the article even admits that police later called the grandmother in question to make it clear that she “wouldn’t be committing a crime if she continued posting on Facebook.”
In her post calling out the Mail, the X user said: “So, to recap – The police received a complaint about harassment and had a duty to take it seriously and let her know what was happening. They went to her house, spoke to her husband through the door cam and rang her later so she could ask questions etc.
“They explicitly told her she’d committed NO crime and would be committing NO crime if she continued posting on FB. At no point were NCHIs (Non Crime Hate Incidents) mentioned, nor is this likely to come under that definition.
“But boy is that not the impression given by the headline or a skim read of the article!”
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