COVID critic Patrick Ruane was on Monday sentenced to five years in prison for terrorism offenses, after using social media to encourage violence against England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, among others, during the COVID pandemic.
Ruane was first arrested in November 2021 and later released on bail, but was then charged in August 2023. The UK's Metropolitan Police stated that "large numbers" of his Telegram posts encouraged violence "all because he didn't like the government's response to the pandemic."
Since the COVID pandemic, the UK has seen an alarming rise in harmful conspiracy theories, including those that encouraged the horrific violence in Southport over the summer. To mitigate this dangerous trend, the UK government must better regulate social media, raise public awareness through education, and provide greater support for marginalized individuals vulnerable to this type of content.
While the establishment is quick to silence anyone who questions the official line concerning COVID, a host of legitimate questions about its origins and purpose, and the potential relationship between the vaccines and excess mortality rates, remain. A large segment of the public continues to blindly follow the government narrative, much to the disadvantage of the pursuit of answers.