Police close down Fitwatch website for advice to student protestors

The move was taken last night after a blog post on the Fitwatch website gave guidance to students who feared they might be arrested for taking part in the occupation of the Millbank office complex, according to The Guardian.

The Fitwatch blogpost advice to students included getting rid of clothes they wore at the demonstration, deleting text messages, and changing their appearance.

The Metropolitan Police Central e-Crimes Unit then informed Fitwatch's website hosting service, JustHost.com, that the blog was being used to attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Police ordered the suspension of the website for a minimum period of 12 months for providing explicit advice to offenders on the authority of the Met's public order branch.

Fitwatch was set up in 2007 by protesters seeking to oppose what they saw as objectionable surveillance tactics used by Forward Intelligence Teams (FITs), who use cameras to monitor political activists.
 

This story was first published by Computer Weekly

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