“Something we believe you have written on Facebook has upset someone.”

“Police in free speech row after telling cancer patient to apologise for social media post”, the Telegraph reports.

Police have become embroiled in a free speech row after officers told a cancer patient to apologise for a social media post.

Deborah Anderson, an American citizen living in Slough, was confronted by an officer from Thames Valley Police after someone complained about an offensive Facebook post.

The police did not divulge which post had been the subject of the complaint.

The mother of two, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, was told that if she did not apologise for the comments she could be interviewed at the police station.

Ms Anderson, a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and a member of the Free Speech Union (FSU), refused and said the officer’s time would be better spent investigating serious crimes such as burglary.

Thames Valley Police later dropped the case after the FSU instructed lawyers.

However, the incident has reignited the debate over how far the police should intervene in social media spats.

The issue came into focus earlier this month when Graham Linehan, the Irish comedy writer, was arrested by five armed officers at Heathrow Airport over comments he had posted on X about a transgender activist.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has since said the police were in an impossible position when it came to such matters and called on the Government to provide greater clarity within legislation.

[…]

Ms Anderson was visited at home by a single officer in June and informed that Thames Valley Police had received a complaint about her.

In a video shared by the FSU, the officer said: “Something we believe you have written on Facebook has upset someone.”

Ms Anderson then asked: “You’re here because someone got upset? Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?”

The officer confirmed that she was not being arrested and explained: “My plan was that if it was you who wrote the comment, you could just make an apology to the person.”

Ms Anderson replied: “I am not apologising to anybody, I can tell you that.”

The officer told her: “The alternative would be that I would have to call you in for interview.”

Ms Anderson then asked the officer: “Are there no houses that have been burgled recently, no rapes, no murders? … Then why aren’t you out there investigating those?”

Lord Young of Acton, general secretary of the FSU, said: “Watching this video, it’s as if the police have become schoolteachers, intervening in petty squabbles. Since when has it been their job to ask people to apologise?

“Except instead of threatening you with detention if you don’t, they’re threatening you with arrest. It’s both comical and deeply sinister – carry on 1984.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: “In June, we received a report from a person who felt threatened by comments directed at them online.

“Following engagement with both parties, no arrests were made and no further action was taken.”

If Plod the Prefect comes round to “engage” with you, do what Ms Anderson did and stand your ground. The chances are good that they will back off. Even if they don’t, you will have kept your self-respect.* This is the alternative.

*Another way to preserve your self-respect in these times is not to join the police. No officer should have to endure this type of deliberately humiliating hazing ritual.