Police Scotland has come under fire on social media after posting a message threatening to hunt down anonymous Twitter users in the wake of the ‘Nazi Pug’ controversy.

“You may think online you are anonymous, you can create fake profiles and no-one can trace you. That’s wrong!” the force tweeted, not without an apparent dose of menace.

“The messages you type and send can be traced back to you. The same laws apply to online messages, images and videos. What you post now can affect you later in life.”

You may think online you are anonymous, you can create fake profiles and

no-one can trace you. That’s wrong! The messages you type and send can be traced back to you. The same laws apply to online messages, images and videos. What you post now can affect you later in life. — Police Scotland (@policescotland) March 21, 2018

The terse warning was posted after police and prosecutors received heavy criticism for pursuing YouTube comic Mark Meechan — better known as Count Dankula — through the courts for a comedy skit deemed “grossly offensive”.

“Feels nice living in a country where I can say, ‘Fuck you, you Orwellian douchebags,’ without getting fined or arrested,” chimed in a user from the United States, where the First Amendment prevents the authorities from imposing many restrictions on free speech. – READ MORE