Home secretary accused of deflecting blame from government policies after letter to social media companies
Priti Patel has been accused of attempting to deflect blame from the government’s failure to assist refugees after she told social media companies to remove posts that “glamourise” migrant crossings.
The home secretary wrote to firms on Saturday urging them to do more to remove “totally unacceptable clips” which she said promote “lethal crossings”. The letter followed a viral video posted on TikTok which the Home Office said appeared to show a group of men crossing the Channel in a dinghy. It said similar posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have been used by people smugglers to promote crossings.
