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UK Police Literally Have An 'Elite Squad' To Flag Spicy Social Media Posts...
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,
Britain's latest free speech assault is underway.
An elite police unit set up by the Labour government has already flagged more than 100 social media posts to local forces, monitoring online "protest related activity" in a move critics brand a sinister step toward state control of speech.
The National Internet Intelligence Investigations team, created in the wake of the 2024 Southport riots, began operations in February. Freedom of Information figures obtained by the Telegraph and reported today show it has made 106 referrals of "suspicious" posts to forces across the country.
An elite police squad which was set up to monitor social media in the wake of the Southport riots has flagged more than 100 posts to local forces.
Political opponents have described the squad as "sinister" and said it represents a further erosion of free speech and civil... pic.twitter.com/g8YGewbIVn
In June alone, 50 of those referrals came as public anger boiled over in Southampton after police bodycam footage exposed officers handcuffing dying teenage murder victim Henry Nowak while accepting a false complaint of 'racism' from his Sikh killer.
When the unit was first announced, then policing minister Dame Diana Johnson described it as "a dedicated function at a national level for exploiting internet intelligence to help local forces manage public safety threats and risks."
New elite unit flags more than 100 social media posts to police forces as free speech fears grow https://t.co/DB5IhBmZVu
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) August 8, 2026The National Police Coordination Centre claims the squad "supports policing's understanding of protest-related activity in the online environment by developing a broader picture of emerging, potential risks."
Its remit, officials say, focuses on "providing strategic insight and improving awareness of protest-related developments that may have relevance to policing."
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage commented "This is the beginning of the state controlling free speech. It is sinister, dangerous and must be fought."
Police have refused to disclose which posts were flagged, citing exemptions around crime prevention. The pattern is clear enough. The unit was born from the Southport disorder that followed the murders of three girls by Axel Rudakubana.
In the information vacuum, online discussion of the attacker's background and wider immigration failures was blamed for fanning unrest. Now the same apparatus is trained on any online activity that might signal public discontent with official narratives.
This new monitoring squad slots neatly alongside the Home Office's long-running Research, Information and Communications Unit - RICU - a shadowy "thought police" operation exposed for controlling the mass migration narrative. That unit has intervened after migrant attacks, including the Henry Nowak murder, to shape family statements, briefed police to portray protesters as unsympathetic thugs rather than citizens with grievances, and treated online criticism of immigration policy as a threat requiring behavioural change.
It also sits on top of a growing machinery of digital control that has already turned Britain into a global outlier for speech arrests.
In 2024 alone, nearly 10,000 people were arrested for "grossly offensive" social media posts under communications laws - an average of 30 arrests a day. Some forces clocked rates 20 times higher than others.
Violent offenders were released early to free up cells for those jailed over online comments.
The machinery has been building for years. In 2024, a man was arrested simply for posting "anti-establishment rhetoric" after the riots. Authorities prioritised thought crime over street crime, even as prisons filled with people whose only offence was typing the wrong words.
The Online Safety Act handed regulators sweeping powers to force platforms to remove "harmful" content under threat of massive fines.
Critics called it a censor's charter from the start. Government units that once hunted lockdown dissenters pivoted to monitoring mass migration critics.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan openly called for a dedicated government social media disinformation unit.
The trajectory is consistent: expand the definition of threat, then expand the surveillance.
Layer on mandatory digital ID and biometric tracking, age verification systems that end online anonymity, and proposals that treat social media access itself as a privilege granted by the state.
What begins as "protecting the public from protest risks" becomes a permanent apparatus for mapping, flagging, and suppressing dissent.
Authoritarianism does not need tanks in the streets. It arrives with a login and a national internet intelligence team.
The 106 flagged posts are not the end. They are the proof of concept. An elite unit now sits at the centre of British policing with a mandate to scan the public conversation for signs of discontent and feed those findings to local forces.
The official language is careful. The practical effect is a standing capability to treat online speech as a public order threat.
Free expression does not survive that environment for long.
The only question left is how many more posts, how many more referrals, and how many more arrests will be required before the public refuses to accept the new normal.
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Lake Mead Hits Lowest Level On Record Amid Decade-Long Western Drought
Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir by storage capacity, has fallen to its lowest level on record as a drought throughout western states continues.
Bureau of Reclamation data indicate that the reservoir’s surface elevation rose to 1,040.50 feet above sea level on Thursday, below the previous low of 1,040.58 feet set in July 2022, when the lake first fell to a low following years of drought.
Hoover Dam forms Lake Mead along the Colorado River on the Nevada-Arizona border, and holds water for approximately 40 million people in seven Western states, as well as parts of Mexico. In addition, Lake Mead generates hydropower for customers in California, Arizona, and Nevada, which is threatened by the falling water levels.
As Kimberley Hayek reports for The Epoch Times, the Colorado River Basin has been in a so-called megadrought for more than 20 years.
In 1999, Lake Mead was near capacity, but by 2022 its surface had fallen by nearly 176 feet after a period that is the driest on record throughout many parts of the West.
Southern Nevada gets nearly 90 percent of its water from Lake Mead, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority has long viewed the Colorado River allotment as its largest and most critical resource, leading to conservation efforts over the years that have slashed per-person use going back to the early 2000s, and nearly all indoor water is recycled.
When Lake Mead first fell below 1,075 feet in 2021, federal officials declared a Level 1 shortage, and further declines prompted deeper cuts. Nevada’s share of the river has fallen by billions of gallons over the course of several years.
Hoover Dam also produces thousands of gigawatt-hours of electricity annually.
At Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell, Lake Mead’s companion reservoir, the level was 3,521 feet on Thursday, down nearly 33 feet from a year ago.
Electricity production becomes infeasible once the surface falls to 3,490 feet and below.
Both lakes still operate despite being well below the elevation levels needed for reliable power and storage.
Population growth has also added to the pressure.
Nevada ranked near the top of states for growth in recent years, and Southern Nevada is home to approximately 70 percent of the state’s residents.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area attracts millions of visitors each year for a range of activities, including boating, fishing and hiking.
Low water has exposed once submerged features, such as the ruins of the town of St. Thomas. There is also a World War II-era B-29 bomber that was submerged in the lake after crashing almost 70 years ago.
Tyler Durden Sun, 08/09/2026 - 12:15