Fast tweet kills ‘may stop court action’

Swiftly deleting abusive tweets may save offenders from being brought before court, the country’s leading prosecutor said.

Keir Starmer, director of public prosecutions, said it was “relevant” for police to consider whether an offending tweet had been quickly deleted from the micro-blogging site.

Speaking to Sky’s Dermot Murnaghan, he said he was holding a three-month consultation about the plan.

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Libellous tweets, or messages which broke court orders or were threatening, would still face prosecution regardless, he added.

Mr Starmer said: “There’s a lot of stuff out there that is highly offensive that is put out on a spontaneous basis that is quite often taken down pretty quickly and the view is that those sort of remarks don’t necessarily need to be prosecuted.”

He added: “I think that if there are too many investigations and too many cases coming to court then that can have a chilling effect for free speech.”

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