Six members of staff at the Metropolitan Police have been sacked for their use of social media, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

V3 report

Six members of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), including three serving officers, have been sacked for posting “offensive” and “intimidating” content on social media sites, according to data gathered byV3.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Met Police showed that 75 complaints were registered against officers for social media use between 2010 and 2013, on sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

This led to 38 police officers being disciplined. Of these 38 incidents, six led to ‘management action’, defined as providing feedback to officers over why their conduct fell short, while one case ended with a written warning. Six resigned ahead of any formal actions.

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I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.