Crimes Linked to Social Media Have Risen Significantly in the Past Two Years, New Numbers Show

The number of crimes connected to social media sites has risen significantly over the past two years.

New figures publicized under the UK's Freedom of Information Act show a huge spike in the amount of offenses happening online.

Police in West Yorkshire told the Spenborough Guardian they received at least one Facebook or Twitter-related crime report a day in 2013.

263 people were charged in 733 separate offenses over the last two years that were connected in some way to social media.

160 of the crimes were associated with Facebook.

Of those 160 cases, 44 people were charged, the Guardian reported.

Yorkshire Police said they most often encountered alleged crimes that involved "violence against the person."

According to Detective Chief Inspector Gary Hooks, the numbers don't necessarily reflect cases in which social media was directly related to the offense.

"These FOI figures relate to cases where Facebook or Twitter were mentioned somewhere in the case notes," he said. "Consequently, they refer to cases where the perpetrators of crime have misused social media, as well as where these social media providers have been used as investigative tools to obtain evidence or intelligence related to the crime being investigated."

Hooks added that Yorkshire Police noted the rise in social media-related crimes due to the fact that people are simply using sites like Facebook and Twitter more often.

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