Transforming the UK Home Office into a Department for Homeland Security: Reflecting on an Interview with a Litigant Defending Against Online Retaliatory Feedback in the US.

Retaliatory feedback is a significant problem on the Internet, which is not just confined to online auction websites, but other online environments dependent on reputation systems. Explored in this paper are the acts of an Internet troller who spread malicious and false allegations that the series of conferences called WORLDCOMP are 'fake.' This paper interviews one of the organisers of this conference to ask how they went about dealing with the retaliatory feedback, and in particular their engagement with law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, which now forms part of the US Department of Homeland Security. To reform the UK Home Office to learn lessons from this, the paper proposes making greater use of National Crime Agency and Police and Crime Commissioners to provide a better strategic set-up for law enforcement under the UK Home Office. It also suggest using publicly funded solicitors and community wardens, as opposed to the current set-up of police constables, to deal with community policing. The paper concludes that in order for the promise made by the New Labour Government to be 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime' to become a reality, encouraging peaceful discourses between community members and former offenders is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]