Police are arresting over 30 individuals daily for posting offensive content on social media and other online platforms, it has been revealed.
Each year, thousands of people are being taken into custody and interrogated for sending messages through the internet, phone, or mail that cause “annoyance”, “inconvenience” or “anxiety” to others.
According to custody data reported by The Times, law enforcement officers are making approximately 12,000 arrests annually under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
These laws prohibit sending “grossly offensive” messages or distributing content deemed “indecent, obscene, or menacing” via electronic communication networks, with the intent to cause distress.
In 2023, officers across 37 police forces recorded 12,183 arrests—averaging around 33 per day. This reflects a nearly 58 per cent increase compared to pre-pandemic levels when 7,734 arrests were logged in 2019.
Following the bombshell revelation, we have compiled a list of some of the most chilling examples in recent years of people being arrested for what civil liberties groups describe as “overzealous” policing of the internet.
The list, by no means exhaustive, paints a picture of modern-day policing.
Joseph Kelly
Joseph Kelly, 36, from Glasgow was arrested in February 2021 for a “grossly offensive” tweet about the late Sir Captain Tom Moore
X
Joseph Kelly, 36, from Glasgow was arrested in February 2021 for a “grossly offensive” tweet about the late Sir Captain Tom Moore, who had become a national hero in 2020 after raising over £32 million for NHS charities by walking 100 laps of his garden during the first Covid lockdown.
A day after Moore’s death, Kelly had tweeted: “The only good Brit soldier is a deed one, burn auld fella buuuuurn.”
The tweet is live for approximately 20 minutes before Kelly deleted it following an immediate backlash, including threats against him and his family. Despite its short duration online, the tweet is screenshotted and reported to authorities.
Kelly later admitted to authoring the tweet but claims it was a drunken, spur-of-the-moment act meant as a tasteless joke, not a serious statement.
Police arrested the Glaswegian following the tweet. He was charged under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, which prohibits sending messages via public electronic networks that are “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.
The charge specifies that Kelly’s post uttered “offensive remarks about Captain Sir Tom Moore, now deceased”.
The 37-year-old later was found guilty by Sheriff Adrian Cottam and received a community payback order.
Scottish police and the Crown Office defend the prosecution, emphasising a zero-tolerance stance on hate speech, but civil liberties groups took a different opinion.
Kelly, supported by the Free Speech Union (FSU), later announced plans to appeal his conviction to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), arguing the tweet should be protected as free expression.
The FSU said: “This case goes beyond obtaining justice for Joe, it is about challenging the arbitrary use of power to interfere with lawful free speech and halting the development of blasphemy law by another name.”
Darren Brady
Darren Brady was arrested for sharing a meme on social media that depicted the Progress Pride flags arranged into the shape of a swastika
X
In July 2022, Darren Brady, a British Army veteran, received a knock on his door from Hampshire Police officers and was subsequently arrested for “malicious communications”.
The 51-year-old’s alleged crime was sharing a meme on social media that depicted the Progress Pride flags arranged into the shape of a swastika.
Hampshire Police received a complaint from a member of the public about Brady’s post, alleging it constitutes a hate crime.
Footage of the arrest was widely shared on social media and showed an officer who told Brady he was being apprehended because his post had “caused anxiety” and been reported to authorities.
In the video, shot on a mobile phone, Mr Brady can be heard asking the three police officers: ‘Why am I in cuffs?’
One officer responds: ‘It didn’t have to come to this at all.’
Mr Brady replied: ‘Tell us why you escalated it to this level because I don’t understand.’
The officer adds: ‘Someone has been caused anxiety based on your social media post. That is why you have been arrested.’
Brady was taken to a police station and held for several hours in a cell. The arrest is livestreamed on Facebook, amplifying its visibility.
After questioning, Brady is released with no further action (NFA), meaning no charges are pursued. Miller is also released under investigation for obstruction but faced no immediate charges.
The British Army veteran’s arrest sparked outrage, with users on Twitter, now known as X, accusing the police of abusing their power and undermining free speech.
Following public backlash, Donna Jones, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, announced the scrapping of the hate-crime awareness course offered to Brady at the time.
Lucy Connolly
Lucy Connolly was jailed for 31 months at Birmingham Crown Court for stirring up racial hatred on X
Northamptonshire police
In October 2024, Lucy Connolly, the wife of a Conservative councillor, received a stiff prison sentence after posting an offensive tweet about burning hotels housing asylum seekers in the wake of the Southport murders.
This incident occurred against a backdrop of heightened national tension following the stabbings, misinformation, and subsequent riots, making it a high-profile example of the UK’s enforcement of online hate speech laws.
On the same day as three young girls were fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside, by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, Lucy Connolly, from Northampton, posts a tweet to her 10,000 followers on X: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f***ing hotels full of the bastards for all I care … If that makes me racist, so be it.”
The post is live for about two hours before the 42-year-old deletes it, later apologising for acting on “false and malicious” information. It is viewed 310,000 times and reposted by others, including Tyler Kay, who is later jailed.
Her tweet, though deleted, is screenshotted and circulates, drawing police attention amid a crackdown on online incitement.
Connolly is charged with publishing written material intending to stir up racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986, a more serious offence than the Communications Act 2003 violations seen in similar cases. She is later sentenced to 31 months in prison.
The severity of her sentence sparked an outcry among free speech advocates and prominent politicians, with ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman branding the 31-month jail sentence imposed on the Northamptonshire childminder “excessive” and claimed that she was the victim of a “politicised two-tier justice system”.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss also joined the growing number of political figures voicing anger about two-tier justice, demanding Connolly “be released immediately and reunited with her family”, adding: “The severity of her sentence is completely unjustifiable and a shocking example of two-tier justice which now prevails in Britain.
Connolly is looking to appeal her sentence by arguing the trial judge made a mistake over categorising the severity of her crime.
Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine
Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine were arrested in front of their nine-year-old daughter by six police officers and held in a cell for 11 hours
GB NEWS
Last month, Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine were arrested in front of their nine-year-old daughter by six police officers and held in a cell for 11 hours for criticising the policies of their daughter’s school in emails and a WhatsApp group.
They were reportedly questioned on suspicion of harassment, malicious communications and causing a nuisance on school property.
The couple’s arrest on January 29 reportedly followed a complaint from the school about Allen and his partner sending multiple emails and making “disparaging” remarks in a parents’ WhatsApp group.
Previously, the couple had been banned from entering Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, after questioning the head teacher appointment process and “casting aspersions” on the chairman of governors in the WhatsApp group, according to The Times.
Allen, a producer for Times Radio, told the newspaper that he and his partner were prevented from attending the parents’ evening for their nine-year-old daughter Sascha.
He said the school’s approach was intended to “silence awkward parents”, and that their treatment showed a “massive overreach” by the police.
The producer called the ordeal “nightmarish”, adding: “We’d never used abusive or threatening language, even in private, and always followed due process.”
