@elonmusk Use them all the time to help me to help others by giving really reduced cost and free teaching of procurement.
https://t.co/uZtVyxZ3Qy is all down to team work with my digital team
@andyburnham Wrong. Not politics.
You lot and the ones before you. Career politicians who do not represent us but represent yourselves.
Want change? Then make it so you lot are forced to be more transparent, start with Angela and her lot. Make it so you cannot lie and have privilege
More than 60,000 people have been arrested over the past five years for “communications offences” — in cases as trivial as viewing disparaging TikTok videos.
A new report by Big Brother Watch has revealed that at least 62,199 people have been arrested for such offences across the UK, with 18,510 charged and 12,292 convicted.
This is the reality of living in Britain in 2026.
At the Free Speech Union, we have helped countless individuals who have felt the long arm of the law over social media posts or messages in WhatsApp group chats.
They include Graham Linehan, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport over three gender-critical posts on X, and Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine, who were held for 11 hours on suspicion of harassment and malicious communications after complaining about their daughter’s school in a parents’ WhatsApp group.
Big Brother Watch is demanding an independent national review of the laws affecting freedom of speech in the UK and action to “restore Britain’s free speech laws and culture”. The Free Speech Union fully endorses this call.
In 2023, 90% of all crimes went unsolved. Yet over the past five years, more than 62,000 people have been arrested for “offensive” posts and messages online.
How can the police continue to complain that they are underfunded and under-resourced when they are focusing on vexatious complaints and hurty words online?
It is also clear that there is a postcode lottery for free speech across Britain, with some forces far more zealous than others when it comes to policing lawful expression.
The FSU’s General Secretary, Lord Young of Acton, said:
“Shoplifting, mobile phone theft and sexual offences are all on the rise, yet the police seem increasingly obsessed with catching thought criminals.
“The sheer number of people being arrested for online offences, even though only one in five ends up being convicted, cannot help but have a chilling effect on free speech.
“People up and down the country daren’t say what they think about a whole range of issues for fear they’ll get a knock on their door at four in the morning by a couple of plainclothes officers wearing rainbow lanyards.”
Read more below 👇