David Ho
Holy cow, as an American, I wasn't aware of the Horizon IT scandal. ~1,000 postal workers were wrongfully prosecuted for theft and other crimes, imprisoned, and forced to repay tens of thousands of pounds. 13 of them committed suicide! But it was an IT error! AI will make this worse.


https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/world/europe/uk-post-office-scandal-report.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Vk8.LKk8.BbcHfblN3WM4&smid=url-share
At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says

A public inquiry into the wrongful prosecutions of about 1,000 postal workers has uncovered more victims than previously known, according to a report.

The New York Times
Jul 11, 2025 at 4:49pmWeb
Show threadDamonHDJul 11, 2025
@davidho Frankly it was repulsive 'management' by folks who get paid (at least) an order of magnitude more than you or I to take difficult decisions and responsibility and did neither of those things. Negligent and venal and willfully blind and many many other bad things.
Show threadHuubjeJul 11, 2025
@davidho not just an IT error, an IT error that was repeatedly brought to attention and swept under the rug
Show threadJustin MJul 11, 2025
@Huubje @davidho Sadly, it is a typical reaction by management. The system they spent all that time, money, and political capital promoting can not be at fault. It must be the workers' fault.
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror πŸš€πŸ’™πŸŒˆJul 11, 2025
@davidho see how our current Government hasn't learned a single fucking lesson from the Horizon scandal and is going all in on the AI hustle...
Show threadMatthew ReinboldJul 11, 2025
@davidho *Mr Bates vs. The Post Office* is an OK to good tv miniseries about the Horizon IT scandal. Stars Toby Jones and can be streamed for free on Amazon Prime Video in the US.
Show thread🌻 Welcome Back 🌻Jul 15, 2025
@matthew @davidho
There's also a good documentary to watch after that. They both explain the long history to the US folks who don't know anything about it.
Show threadFrannovalJul 11, 2025
@davidho The real scandal is all the post office managers who covered it up for so long. If you’re really just learning about this, you might want to consider perusing bbc.com headlines from time to time. This has been going on for very very long time. As to AI making it worse, I think the problem there is not only that AI probably is more error prone, but that’s so many people trusted without ever checking β€œitsβ€œ work. No need to intend to cover up; just folks using AI and blindly trusting it is enough for more crap like this
Show threadBashStKidJul 11, 2025
@davidho The particularly English part, as ever, is not the IT failure, but the management response of denial and preferring to prosecute the postmasters for frequently racist reasons.
The cherry on the cake was having an ordained Church of England priest in charge of all this avoidable human destruction.
Show threadRobin BartonJul 11, 2025
@davidho And the bosses knew it was an IT problem but let it happen anyway. It was the UK equivalent of the Ford Memo
Show threadDomino JoyceJul 11, 2025
@davidho Implicit racism involved too. Awful. )Apparently the tv drama is good but I haven’t seen it).
Show threadOliver VanderbJul 11, 2025

@davidho

But you heard about the xerox bug, didn't you?

Show threadGary Jul 11, 2025

@davidho it wasn’t just an IT error: it was an IT error that was then enthusiastically, violently, threateningly and illegally covered up by people in power who knew what had gone wrong and wanted to put the blame on their own employees.

Utterly disgusting abuse of power. Seriously, the IT side of it is the least of the problems in this scandal.

Show threadDerick RethansJul 12, 2025
@WiteWulf @davidho I've read some of the original tech report. Although it's indeed mostly a managerial cover up, the technicians involved should also be ashamed. They basically never heard of idempotency, for a vast distributed system.
Show threadJohn LuskJul 11, 2025

@davidho @_L1vY_

Yeah, I remember hearing a podcast episode about it a few years ago.

Just... criminal. I can't remember if people paid, but I sure hope so.

Show threadDr Susi ArnottJul 11, 2025
@davidho Covered diligently over decades by #PrivateEye
Show threadSellaTheChemistJul 11, 2025
@SusiArnott @davidho And there are some great podcasts about. Nick Wallis did some great work digging around. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf7j/episodes/downloads
BBC Radio 4 - The Great Post Office Trial - Downloads

Podcast downloads for The Great Post Office Trial

BBC
Show threadBodhipaksaJul 11, 2025
@davidho It started with an IT error, but companies prosecuting individuals despite knowing the accounting software was faulty was the real scandal.
Show threadπŸ’‘πš‚π—†π–Ίπ—‹π—π—†π–Ίπ—‡ π™°π—‰π—‰π—ŒπŸ“±Jul 12, 2025
@davidho
There's a mini-series about it. Worth watching.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Bates_vs_The_Post_Office
Mr Bates vs The Post Office - Wikipedia

Show threadfulanigirlJul 12, 2025
@davidho If you support PBS, you can watch the 5 or 6 part series they've been broadcasting on this subject. It has run at least twice in the past 18 months,
Show threadSpaceLifeFormJul 12, 2025

@davidho

Not news to me, but I do not follow legacy media where they bury the news.

Show threadSequin WorldJul 12, 2025

@davidho

"as an American"

ffs

Show threadDavyJonesJul 12, 2025
@davidho And the states response is to get rid of jury's, because that will make the justice system less biased toward the rich. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/08/trials-with-no-jury-disadvantage-people-of-colour-campaigners-courts
More trials with no jury will disadvantage people of colour, charities warn

Reformers say more judge-only trials in England and Wales could lead to more miscarriages of justice

The Guardian