Berkeley police posted activists' mugshots on Twitter and celebrated retweets, emails reveal

City has an explicit policy of targeting protesters with mugshot tweets to ‘help create a counter-narrative’

A California police agency that published the names and photos of anti-fascist protesters on Twitter said it was creating a “counter-narrative” on social media and celebrated its high rate of retweets and “engagement”, internal records reveal.

The Berkeley police department (BPD) faced widespread backlash last month after posting the personal information of arrested activists online, leading to Fox News coverage and harassment and abuse against the leftwing demonstrators at a far-right rally. New emails have shown that the city has an explicit policy of targeting protesters with mugshot tweets, with the goal of using “social media to help create a counter-narrative”.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2xiZljJ
via
0 Comments