Abusive social media posts directed at MSPs tripled in past year

It comes after the Scottish Parliament employed two members of staff – including a former police inspector – to trawl the social media accounts of 69 MSPs.
The pair found 23,507 posts considered abusive between 2024 and 2025. However, the posts did not reach the required level to be considered criminal.
Last year, the figure was 8,110.
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In the most recent year, 257 posts were referred to Police Scotland – down from 461 the previous year – with one case proceeding to court.
The SNP saw the highest level of abuse, with 15,749 posts directed towards its MSPs. Scottish Labour MSPs were next with 4,150, while the Conservatives were targeted in 1,888 posts.
Scottish Green and Liberal Democrat MSPs faced 939 and 729 abusive posts respectively, while 52 messages targeted independent members.
Male MSPs received vastly more abuse than their female colleagues, with 19,511 messages compared to 3,996.
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Lynsey Hamill, Holyrood's director of operations and digital, said: 'Whilst it is too early to draw any firm conclusions on trends and success of the scheme when comparing data from the pilot year and year one, we can see the scale of online abuse of MSPs is now readily apparent and growing.
'This chimes with feedback we have had from members for some time now.'
A Scottish Parliament spokesperson added: 'The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) is acutely aware of the rising level of threat against elected representatives.
'Last year, the SPCB invested £125,000 to make permanent its online threat managing service.
'Under the service, potentially criminal threats are identified by the Parliament's security team and escalated to Police Scotland for its action.'

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