How many arrests in the UK linked to online communications

1. The headline figure: roughly 12,000 arrests in 2023

Freedom of information data obtained by national media and summarised in parliamentary discussion shows about 12,000 arrests recorded by 37 police forces in 2023 under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, which has been widely reported and republished across outlets and briefings ^{[1] [2] [3]}. European Parliament and other summaries converted that annual total into a per‑day metric — “over 30 arrests per day” — which is arithmetically accurate but risks implying all were for trivial “online comments” rather than a range of communications offences ^[4].

2. What these laws actually cover — why context matters

Those two statutory provisions do not refer exclusively to casual social‑media comments: they criminalise communications that are grossly offensive, indecent, menacing, or which cause distress, and can apply to emails, letters, phone calls, hoax emergency calls and serious domestic‑abuse communications as well as posts on public platforms ^{[6] [5]}. Fact‑checkers and analysts have warned that grouping all recorded arrests under the shorthand “social media arrests” flattens important legal and factual differences — from threats and hoax terrorism warnings to harassment and hate crime — that influence whether cases proceed to charge or conviction ^{[1] [5] [7]}.

3. Geographic footprint and per‑capita variation

Breakdowns published in parliamentary library material and related reporting show the Metropolitan Police recorded the largest number of arrests , followed by West Yorkshire and Thames Valley , while, on a per‑capita basis, Leicestershire was flagged as having the highest arrest rate per 100,000 population — figures that reveal significant variation between forces in how often these offences result in custody ^[8]. Media and FOI extracts underpinning these tallies come from a subset of forces and so national extrapolations must be treated with care ^[7].

4. Outcomes: many arrests, relatively few convictions

Multiple reports and NGO summaries note that while arrests have climbed — reportedly more than doubling since 2017 — convictions and custodial sentences have fallen as a proportion of recorded arrests, with less than one‑tenth of 2023 arrests leading to sentencing and specific new Online Safety Act charges numbering in the low hundreds through early 2025 ^{[3] [2]}. Commentators and debunkers point out that arrests can and often do result in release with no further action; that pattern factors into debates over whether police are over‑applying vague offence labels or appropriately policing threats and harassment ^{[5] [9]}.

5. The debate: free speech alarm versus policing of harm

Civil liberties groups argue the scale of arrests under broad communications provisions poses a chilling risk to legitimate expression and have called for independent reviews of practice and law ^[8]. Police and prosecutors say the categories capture serious harms — including threats, hate crimes, and domestic abuse communications — and that recording arrests is part of investigative practice, not proof of wrongful overreach ^{[6] [5]}. Media framing and selective citation of the “30 a day” figure have fed political and international narratives, sometimes with partisan aims or to advance regulatory agendas in debates over online safety ^{[4] [7]}.

6. Bottom line — how many arrests are linked to online communications?

The best publicly reported figure for recent years is approximately 12,000 arrests for communications offences recorded in 2023 by 37 police forces — commonly expressed as roughly 30–33 arrests per day — but that number covers a legally broad set of communications (not only “online comments”), varies by force, and results in a relatively small share of prosecutions and sentences, meaning the statistic is accurate as a raw count but limited as a measure of censorship or criminalisation of ordinary speech ^{[1] [4] [3] [5] [7]}.