Aaron Soto13h ago
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 at 4:49pmWeb
Show threadJcrabapple20h ago
@davidho there's a TV show about it.
Show threadImran Nazar ~ عمران نزر17h ago
@jcrabapple @davidho And it was only the TV show bringing the matter back up that finally secured some meagre form of justice. That's perhaps the craziest part of the whole thing.
Show threadDamonHD20h ago
@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 threadHuubje20h ago
@davidho not just an IT error, an IT error that was repeatedly brought to attention and swept under the rug
Show threadJustin M14h ago
@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 🚀💙🌈20h ago
@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 Reinbold19h ago
@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 threadFrannoval19h ago
@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 “its“ work. No need to intend to cover up; just folks using AI and blindly trusting it is enough for more crap like this
Show threadBashStKid19h ago
@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 Barton18h ago
@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 Joyce18h ago
@davidho Implicit racism involved too. Awful. )Apparently the tv drama is good but I haven’t seen it).
Show threadScoldyFingerWagger13h ago

@domino_joyce @davidho

It is excellent... worth your time.

Show threadOliver Vanderb18h ago

@davidho

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

Show threadGary Parker 17h ago

@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 Rethans7h ago
@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 threadSchroedinger17h ago

@davidho As others have said - it wasn't an IT error.

It was a corrupt and abusive omnishambles, of neglect and deliberate avoidance of responsibility.

I mean, I don't think the level of scandal has been even close to acknowledged.

Show threadJohn Lusk15h ago

@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 threadSusi Arnott15h ago
@davidho Covered diligently over decades by #PrivateEye
Show threadSellaTheChemist14h ago
@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 threadBodhipaksa14h ago
@davidho It started with an IT error, but companies prosecuting individuals despite knowing the accounting software was faulty was the real scandal.
Show threadScoldyFingerWagger13h ago

@davidho

Wait until you hear about Grenfell Tower fire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower

Then there is the contaminated blood scandal...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infected_blood_scandal_in_the_United_Kingdom

Oh and the phone hacking...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_hacking

I could go further but you get the drift eh.

Grenfell Tower - Wikipedia

Show thread💡𝚂𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝙰𝗉𝗉𝗌📱12h ago
@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 threadfulanigirl12h ago
@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 threadSpaceLifeForm12h ago

@davidho

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

Show threadSequin World11h ago

@davidho

"as an American"

ffs

Show threadDavyJones8h ago
@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