LONDON
\nBritain is keeping thousands of specialized police on duty in case of racist rioting at the weekend and the government said it was considering tightening regulations around social media companies after days of unrest driven by online misinformation.
\nPrime Minister Keir Starmer said extra police numbers and swift justice had deterred people he referred to as \u201cfar-right thugs\u201d since Wednesday, but that the authorities would stay on high alert for further trouble.
\nRacist attacks and disorder have mostly targeted Muslims and migrants. Hotels housing asylum-seekers have had their windows smashed and mosques have been pelted with rocks.
\nThose involved in the riots could expect to be brought before the courts, Starmer said, noting that what he called \u201csignificant sentences\u201d had already been handed out.
\n\u201cThat is a very important part of the message to anybody who is thinking about getting involved in further disorder,\u201d he told reporters during a visit to a police command center in London.
\nIt is not clear how many far-right gatherings are planned or if they will go ahead. There are around 40 counter-protests due on Saturday, according to the Stand Up to Racism group.
\nThe National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council (NPCC) said 6,000 public order trained officers would remain on duty over the weekend.
\n\u201cWhile the previous two nights have been a welcome break from the appalling scenes of the last week, and may have reached a turning point, we are by no means complacent,\u201d Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, NPCC Chair, said.
\n\u201cWe are working hard to bring this disorder to an end, but arrests are just getting started.\u201d
\nAlmost 600 people have been arrested so far for involvement in, or online encouragement of, attacks on Muslim, immigration and other sites as well as police since late last month, with a 13-year-old among those charged.
\nData released on Friday by the Justice Ministry showed that more than 150 of those charged have already appeared in court. Dozens have already been jailed with cases fast-tracked through the justice system and more due to be sentenced on Friday.
\nCharges have also been brought against people involved in counter-protests.
\nProsecutors said a local councillor, who was suspended by Starmer\u2019s Labour Party on Thursday after footage emerged of him calling for people to cut the throats of \u201cdisgusting Nazi fascists,\u201d had been charged with encouraging violent disorder and would appear at court on Friday.
\n\u201cHigh alert\u201d
\nThe riots broke out across the country after a wave of false online posts wrongly identified the suspected killer of three young girls in a knife attack on July 29 in Southport, northwest England, as an Islamist migrant.
\nCabinet Office minister Nick Thomas\u2013Symonds told Sky News on Friday the government would revisit the framework of the country\u2019s Online Safety Act that regulates social media companies\u2019 responsibilities regarding content inciting violence or hate.
\n\u201cWe stand ready to make changes if necessary,\u201d he said of the act, passed in October but not due to come into effect until next year due to a consultation process.
\nPredicted widespread far-right riots failed to materialize on Wednesday, when thousands of counter-protesters took the streets across the country, giving hope to authorities and worried community leaders that the disorder was fizzling out.
\n\u201cWe have to stay on high alert going into this weekend,\u201d Starmer told reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Britain is keeping thousands of specialized police on duty in case of racist rioting at the weekend and the government said it was considering tightening regulations around social media companies after days of unrest driven by online misinformation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said extra police numbers and swift justice had deterred people he referred …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":68683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68684,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68682\/revisions\/68684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}