What was claimed
Kent Police’s facial recognition team says around 76% of Dover protestors have previous convictions for domestic abuse, paedophilia, GBH or drug dealing.
Our verdict
False. Kent Police confirmed it did not issue or recognise the statistic. The claim originated from a satire account.
Social media posts shared hundreds of times have claimed that Kent Police’s facial recognition team said “around 76% of Dover protestors have previous convictions for domestic abuse, paedophilia, GBH or drug dealing”. But this is false—it is based on a joke post from a satire account.
Kent Police confirmed the post was inaccurate and that it did not issue or recognise the statistic.
Hundreds of masked protestors caused disruption at the Port of Dover on Saturday.
The account which appears to have first posted the claim describes itself as an “obvious satire account” in its bio, but many people seem to think the statistic is genuine.
Join 75,000 newsletter subscribers who trust us to check the facts
Sign up to get weekly updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.
One Facebook post was captioned “hands up those who are surprised by this information”, while an Instagram post said “a bunch of criminals dressed as vigilantes. What a joke!”
Before sharing content like this, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trustworthy source. Our misinformation toolkit contains tips on how to do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because Kent Police confirmed it did not issue the statistic, and the claim originates from a satire account.
Full Fact fights for good, reliable information in the media, online, and in politics.
Fact checking claims made by politicians, public figures and viral online content can give you the full picture backed by the evidence.
Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.