Put up Workplace slammed after deleting social media feedback on IT scandal

The Put up Workplace has been slammed after it was revealed the organisation’s social media accounts have been deleting, suppressing and blocking feedback about critical considerations round compensation for subpostmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal.

No less than two customers, together with a former subpostmaster, have been blocked by the Put up Workplace’s social media account after posting feedback calling the Horizon IT scandal “shameful” and urging quicker compensation. Dozens extra feedback associated to the scandal have since been deleted, it may be revealed.

The Put up Workplace stated it would make “additional enquiries” into their social media accounts, however Sir Alan Bates, the founding father of Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA), stated it’s “yet one more instance of the Put up Workplace attempting to regulate the narrative”.

“It comes as no shock,” he added. “Manipulating the reality appears to be one thing the Put up Workplace has proven it may well excel in.”

One touch upon TikTok – from an account that has since been blocked by the organisation – responded to a promotional video, now additionally deleted, titled, “The way it feels when my suitcase is 0.1kg chubby”. The person wrote: “How I really feel after I consider the subpostmasters who the Put up Workplace didn’t take into consideration.”

In response to a separate video titled, “She doesn’t understand it but, however she gained’t drop off her returns tonight”, one other person commented: “They don’t understand it but however a whole bunch of subpostmasters might be prosecuted for against the law they didn’t commit.” The remark was later deleted by the Put up Workplace.

A fourth deleted remark stated the Put up Workplace is “embarrassing to try to shield your model overcompensating subpostmasters”, with one other person evaluating the Horizon IT system to a rip-off.

Former subpostmaster Lee Castleton, who was left bankrupt by the scandal, acknowledged that it’s “odd” that the Put up Workplace hasn’t appeared to “study the teachings of their previous painful errors”.

He stated: “The one folks attempting to avoid wasting the status of the Put up Workplace are, by their very actions, those trashing it. In actual fact, those that actually care and try to speak to the Put up Workplace to do the fitting factor are those being silenced. The federal government and the Put up Workplace won’t ever ever study the teachings of their previous painful errors.”

In the meantime, the @PostOffice account on X (previously Twitter) has hidden a number of feedback from a former subpostmaster who accused the organisation of being an “embarrassment” run by “corrupt people”.

Former postmaster Peter Murray stated he was blocked on the Put up Workplace’s Fb web page earlier than the Horizon IT inquiry, which began in 2020, after voicing concern for victims like himself: “The Put up Workplace is throwing completely every thing at it to attempt to bury and deflect the Horizon scandal. They’re simply attempting to guard themselves, and their actions on social media mirror a continued failure to grasp the impression the scandal has had on folks’s lives.”

MP Kate Osborne labelled the Put up Workplace as a “shame” for “making an attempt to silence [subpostmasters] once more by deleting feedback from social media”, including: “Sub-postmasters have been persistently silenced, disbelieved, falsely accused, dismissed and even imprisoned due to the actions of the Put up Workplace. 

“It’s a shame that they’re making an attempt to silence them once more by deleting feedback from social media, exhibiting they’ve nonetheless not learnt the teachings of the previous and they’re nonetheless refusing to be accountable for his or her actions.

“Victims of the Horizon Scandal need to be heard, cleared of all costs and obtain full compensation. It’s time the Put up Workplace cease making an attempt to silence its victims, take accountability for his or her actions and face their legitimate criticisms.”

Different criticisms of the Put up Workplace’s dealing with of the scandal have been relegated to a “folded” part on TikTok, considerably limiting their visibility. Customers should scroll to the underside of the remark thread and take additional steps to manually increase the part to view them.

One folded message learn: “Bear in mind if you destroyed folks’s lives by accusing them of theft regardless that you knew your system wasn’t dependable.” One other suppressed account added: “The subpostmasters deserve compensation!” One other commented: “Do you go down your TikToks deleting any point out of the HORIZON SCANDAL?”

This comes amid fury from Sir Alan Bates over the state of the compensation course of itself, with him describing it as a “quasi-kangaroo courtroom”. He stated that he had acquired a “take-it-or-leave-it” provide price lower than half of his unique declare, accusing the scheme of shifting the goalposts and treating sub-postmasters unfairly regardless of years of delay and struggling.

Bates led a gaggle of 555 subpostmasters who took half within the 2918/19 landmark group authorized motion towards the Put up Workplace.

Between 1999 and 2015, greater than 900 subpostmasters had been wrongly prosecuted after the defective Horizon IT system indicated shortfalls in Put up Workplace department accounts, with many extra pressured to cowl deficits which had been brought on by pc errors.

Former subpostmaster Heather Tingle stated: “The Put up Workplace appears to wish to relegate the Horizon scandal to the depths of historical past as if it was so way back… subpostmasters are sometimes dismissed and deleted on social media and it appears like a swift transfer on, and everybody ought to neglect about it.”

Janet Skinner, who had a wrongful conviction overturned in 2021, stated: “The Put up Workplace’s actions have been completely appalling, and it’s clear that they’ve persistently prioritised their status and monetary pursuits over the well-being of their postmasters. 

“The devastating impression on lives and livelihoods is a stark reminder of the human value of their actions. The shortage of compassion, accountability, and transparency is staggering. They present zero compassion in direction of any subpostmaster who’s caught up on this scandal that they created. That is completely disgusting! Nothing the Put up Workplace says or does surprises me anymore.”

The Put up Workplace has stated it would make “additional enquiries”.

A spokesperson stated: “We’re grateful for this matter being raised with us and can make additional enquiries. It’s necessary to notice that lots of our social media posts characteristic new postmasters or postmasters which have solely operated their branches for a number of years and haven’t skilled issues regarding the Horizon IT scandal. Now we have a variety of methods members of the general public can contact the Put up Workplace with their views on the scandal.”

Laptop Weekly first uncovered the scandal in 2009, revealing the tales of seven subpostmasters and the issues they suffered because of Horizon accounting software program, which led to essentially the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British historical past (see under timeline of Laptop Weekly articles concerning the scandal since 2009).