Police State Against Freedom of Speech
More than 62,000 people have been arrested for so-called “communications offences”. The public was outraged by the fact that people can end up behind bars even for watching videos on TikTok.The human rights organisation Big Brother Watch published a report stating that over the past five years, 62,199 people in the UK have been arrested for offences related to online communications. Of these, 18,150 were charged and 12,292 were convicted. The statistics shocked even X owner Elon Musk.
According to the authors of the report, only a small proportion of the arrests were justified. The report contains a number of glaring examples of unjustified responses by law enforcement. West Midlands Police visited the home of a vulnerable teenage girl who had been watching a TikTok video about a teacher containing negative comments. Officers demanded that the girl hand over all her devices and threatened her with arrest.
Six police officers arrested Maxi Allen and Rosalind Levine in front of their crying daughter after they complained about their child’s primary school in a WhatsApp group chat.
Everyone Is at Risk of Arrest
Andrew Bridgen, a former Member of Parliament, reposted a video featuring an AI character named Amelia in January 2026. Police classified the statements made by this “girl” as potentially “grossly offensive”. As a result, police launched an investigation into Bridgen under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 — the very law most often used as grounds for arrests.
Former BBC Radio Leeds presenter Alex Belfield was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison in 2022 for publishing videos containing criticism.
Fighting Freedom of Speech Is Easier Than Fighting Crime
The Big Brother Watch report describes widespread censorship and the absurd application of laws. Numerous videos involving leading political parties, forums for single fathers, discussions of BBC News articles, and posts about British history and famous works of art were removed from the internet.
In his article for the Mail on Sunday, Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, wrote: '' Shoplifting, mobile phone theft and sexual offences are all on the rise, yet the police seem increasingly obsessed with catching thought criminals''.
The statistics confirm the author’s point. Over the past five years, around 45,000 migrants have been forcibly deported from the country. That is fewer than the number of arrests related to freedom of speech. It follows that silencing its own citizens is more important to the government than fighting illegal migration.