POLICE Scotland will use lessons from Rangers disorder and the Kenmure Street protest for COP26 to tackle social media misinformation, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) has heard.
Taking place two days apart earlier this month, both events saw large numbers of officers deployed in Glasgow.
The first event saw hundreds of people gather in a residential street to stop an immigration detention through peaceful protest, while the other saw £58,000 of damage done in George Square as football fans’ celebrations turned to disorder.
Addressing the SPA this week, Deputy Chief Constable Will Kerr said social media lessons learned from those operations would help in the policing of COP26 in November, when thousands of people are expected to demonstrate as UN leaders talk climate change.
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Kerr said there’s a need to communicate more clearly with the public and send out a “counter-narrative” to combat incorrect information circulating on social media.
He told the meeting that discussions on those platforms can be “emotional”, “subjective” and “not factual”.
He added: “There’s almost a need from us to have a bit of attritional, factual counter-narrative out there so that those who misinterpret events and create more community tension can’t do so because we are constantly putting out a chain of factual information that explains exactly what’s going on, what’s happening, what the police are responding and why the police are responding in the way they are.”
The SPA heard from Kerr that the force is “engaging with the widest range of protesters that we possibly can in advance of COP26 so that we can differentiate between the vast majority of people who will come to that event who want to legitimately lawfully protest – and we will facilitate and support the right to do so – from a small minority who will want to come and fight or cause disruption and damage, and we will deal with them”.
He said: “The whole point of this engagement is to make sure that we have an open environment and facilitated discussion with as many of those groups as possible.”
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