How many arrests were made under the UK’s Online Safety Act in 2024 for social media posts?
Executive summary
Available reporting and official briefings do not provide a single, definitive count of arrests made under the Online Safety Act (OSA) in 2024 for social‑media posts; government datasets are by offence group and the Act’s new communications offences only came into force on 31 January 2024 [1] [2]. Independent researchers and NGOs cite dozens to “several” arrests and a small number of prosecutions linked to the OSA’s new false/threatening communications provisions, but aggregated national arrest totals explicitly attributed to the OSA are not published in current reporting [3] [4] [5].
1. What the statute changed and when — the legal baseline
Parliament introduced new criminal offences in Part 10 of the Online Safety Act, and those individual communications offences became legally enforceable on 31 January 2024; the government and courts began treating false and threatening online communications under the reformed framework from that date [1] [2].
2. Why finding a 2024 arrest number is difficult — gaps in official data
Central government statistics do not publish arrests broken down by specific OSA offence: Home Office arrest data is grouped by offence categories, not by individual statutory provisions, so a national count of arrests “under the OSA” is not available in official releases cited in current reporting [2]. The House of Lords library and parliamentary briefings explicitly note this limitation in the data [2].
3. What journalists, researchers and NGOs have reported — scattered counts, not a national total
Academic and legal commentary documents early enforcement activity: scholars record that the first attempted prosecutions under the new false/threatening communications provisions occurred in August 2024 after social unrest, and that several people were prosecuted though only a few succeeded [3]. NGOs and policy groups report “several” arrests under Section 179 in relation to riots and online posts, but they do not publish a comprehensive 2024 arrest tally [4] [3].
4. Arrests under older communications laws complicate comparisons
Much public attention about “online comment” arrests stems from long‑standing use of section 127 (Communications Act 2003) and section 1 (Malicious Communications Act 1988), where thousands of arrests were recorded in recent years (for example, over 12,000 arrests in 2023 under those sections), but those figures pre‑date or sit alongside the OSA and are not the same as arrests made expressly under the OSA in 2024 [6] [7] [8]. Current reporting warns these legacy statistics are often conflated with OSA enforcement in public debate [7] [9].
5. Known outcomes: prosecutions and convictions are few
Scholarly reviews and advocacy sources agree that, while arrests and charges followed the new offences after January 2024, prosecutions were limited and successful convictions remained small in number — commentators note only a handful of convictions from the new communications offences in the wake of 2024 incidents [3] [10]. This aligns with academic caution that proving “falsity” and “non‑trivial harm” is legally challenging [5] [3].
6. Competing narratives and political framing
Civil‑liberties groups stress the OSA’s communications offences are broad and risk chill (describing Section 179 as “outrageously broad”), while government and police sources frame the measures as necessary to deter dangerous online behaviour that incited real‑world disorder [4] [3]. Media outlets and political actors sometimes conflate historic arrest totals under older laws with OSA enforcement to make broader points about UK free speech — readers should treat such comparisons with caution [9] [7].
7. What we can reliably say and what we cannot
Reliable facts from available sources: the OSA’s new communications offences came into force 31 January 2024 [1] [2]; early enforcement activity and attempted prosecutions followed in mid‑2024, particularly after riots [3] [11]. Not found in current reporting: a single, official national figure for arrests made specifically “under the Online Safety Act” in 2024 [2].
8. How to get a definitive count if you need one
To obtain an authoritative 2024 arrest total explicitly tied to OSA provisions, request disaggregated arrest data from the Home Office or ask the Crown Prosecution Service/Ofcom for enforcement breakdowns by statutory provision; current parliamentary research notes the absence of such granular national publication [2].
Limitations: this analysis uses the supplied sources only; other contemporaneous documents or force‑level custody returns might contain specific figures but are not included here — available sources do not mention a single national total for OSA‑specific arrests in 2024 [2].