A Daily Mail investigation has revealed an alarming rise in the number of arrests carried out by police forces across the country for “offensive” social media posts.
The highest rate of arrests for online “thought crimes” was recorded by Cumbria Constabulary at 42.5 per 100,000 people — 217 arrests in 2024. This is 20 times higher than Staffordshire Police, which recorded an arrest rate of just 2.1/100,000.
While figures show that the total number of arrests for online posts fell to 9,700 last year, down from a record 13,800 in 2023, this remains deeply concerning, particularly in a country that claims to be a democratic society. Arrest numbers are still higher than they were before the pandemic.
The investigation casts serious doubt on the Prime Minister’s claim that the UK does not have a free speech problem.
The Daily Mail submitted Freedom of Information requests to all the police forces in England and Wales, asking how many people had been arrested under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, but received responses from only 39. Undoubtedly, the total number of arrests will be higher.
The Free Speech Union has led the charge against the police’s increasingly overzealous approach to monitoring social media, achieving several significant victories, including the Met’s decision to stop investigating Non-Crime Hate Incidents (NCHIs) in the wake of our successful defence of Graham Linehan.
Linehan was arrested by five armed officers when his plane landed at Heathrow Airport over three social media posts poking fun at trans activists. It is not illegal to hold gender-critical beliefs, yet police deemed it necessary to detain him for over 12 hours.
Times Radio presenter Maxie Allen and his wife, Rosalind Levine, were arrested by six uniformed officers at home, in front of their young daughter, after sending disparaging WhatsApp messages about their daughter’s school. Happily, the police have decided to take no further action and paid the couple £20,000 in compensation.
Arguably the most well-known case is that of Lucy Connolly, who was arrested following an ill-tempered post on X last summer. She received a 31-month prison sentence and was released after serving 10 months earlier this year.
When Sir Keir Starmer served as Director of Public Prosecutions, he issued CPS guidance stating that “offensive” social media messages should only lead to prosecution in “extreme circumstances”. Unfortunately, that advice is no longer being followed.
It is truly shocking that police forces are devoting time, energy and limited resources to monitoring social media posts when figures show that 90 per cent of all crimes went unsolved in 2023. The Free Speech Union has long argued that authorities should “police the streets, not our tweets” – a slogan even Labour’s Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has repeated when questioned about the over-zealous policing of social media.
According to polling by Policy Exchange, only seven per cent of adults consider offensive social media posts a “top priority” for the police. The public would far rather see officers tackling knife crime, burglaries and sexual offences.
The Mail’s investigation has exposed the postcode lottery faced by Brits across England and Wales. The police need to stop obsessing over hurty words and trivial online disputes and turn their attention to solving real crimes that cause real-world harm.