NCA and social media firms work to tackle organised immigration crime

The agreement, which is supported by the Home Office, has witnessed an increase in the number of takedowns as the National Crime Agency worked with Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to increase their understanding of how organised crime was using their platforms to advertise illegal services.

This news emanates as representatives from the social media companies met with senior National Crime Agency officers and immigration minister Robert Jenrick at the Home Office to discuss the progress being made and, in parallel, look at new ways forward.

The meeting heard how, the since the Action Plan was agreed, there has been positive engagement with social media channels, whose management teams have acted quickly on intelligence supplied by the National Crime Agency and removed illegal content.

More than 3,300 posts, pages or accounts have been removed or otherwise suspended as a result, increasing disruption of organised crime groups’ activities. The National Crime Agency assesses that this has led the criminals to adapt their tactics in order to avoid detection.

Strong partnership

Speaking after the meeting, Chris Farrimond (director of threat leadership at the National Crime Agency) said: “The last year has witnessed a strong partnership develop between ourselves and the main social media companies with the overriding aim of preventing organised crime groups from using their platforms. Our understanding is growing all the time, and we now have a solid foundation upon which we can build by working together.”

Farrimond continued: “Tragically, the last year has also seen a number of fatalities both in the English Channel and further afield in the Mediterranean. This hammers home to us all the need to do more to stop these crime groups, whose members treat fellow human beings as a commodity from whom they can profit and have no regard for their safety or security.”

Robert Jenrick observed: “We expect social media companies to continue to work with Government to take down social posts by evil people smugglers and tackle their business model at source. We have gone further by introducing an amendment to the Online Safety Bill to ensure tech firms take proactive steps to stop people smugglers from conducting their business on social media.”

Jenrick added: “These criminals will not stop. We must do more, and faster, to stop the boats, which is one of the Government’s five priorities. That’s why the Illegal Migration Bill will afford immigration officers new powers to search for and seize electronic devices like mobile phones from people who come to the UK illegally so as to help collect intelligence that will assist in catching and prosecuting more of the criminals behind these crossings.”

Key priority

Tackling organised immigration crime is a key priority for the National Crime Agency, which is currently dealing with upwards of 90 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of people smuggling or human trafficking. That’s the highest number of investigations, in fact, since the National Crime Agency first became operational nearly ten years ago.

The National Crime Agency continues to seek to disrupt the business models of these crime groups through the targeting of their social media offering.

The Social Media Action Plan was implemented to bring greater collaboration against those crime groups using social media to recruit, communicate and advertise a range of services to migrants. It maps out a greater shared understanding of the threat posed by organised immigration crime between social media companies and the National Crime Agency.