How many people are arrested in the UK each year for social media posts including tweets?
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Executive summary
The best publicly reported figures indicate UK police made roughly 12,000 arrests a year for “offensive” online communications (about “more than 30 arrests a day”) based on custody data compiled by The Times and cited across reports in 2025 (e.g., around 12,000 arrests annually and Metropolitan Police 1,709 arrests) [1] [2] [3]. Parliamentary debate and civil‑liberties groups describe this as a sharp rise since 2017 and warn of a chilling effect on free speech [4] [5].
1. What the headline numbers actually are
Multiple outlets citing custody data obtained by The Times reported that police made “more than 30 arrests a day” for offensive online messages — an annualised figure of roughly 12,000 arrests per year for the period reported [1] [2]. The Lords Library and House of Lords debates reference the same Times data and give specific force counts (Metropolitan Police 1,709; West Yorkshire 963; Thames Valley 939) drawn from freedom‑of‑information returns [3] [5].
2. What offences and laws these arrests are recorded under
The arrests discussed in these reports are those recorded under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 — offences that cover sending indecent, grossly offensive or menacing messages through electronic communications [3]. Government‑level national statistics do not break out arrests by these exact offence codes centrally, which is why journalists used FOI requests to police forces [3].
3. How complete and comparable the data are
Available reporting is based on FOI‑sourced custody returns from many but not necessarily all forces; some forces did not provide complete data to journalists, so the published totals may undercount arrests [6] [3]. The Lords Library explicitly notes the government does not publish centrally held figures for these specific offences, limiting ability to confirm exact national totals from official Home Office releases [3].
4. How many people are prosecuted or imprisoned
The high number of arrests has not translated into equivalent prosecutions or custodial sentences; reporting and commentary emphasise that convictions have fallen even as arrests rose, and many arrests do not lead to charges or sentences due to evidential issues or victim non‑support [5] [3]. Independent fact‑checking pieces and analysts also note that while arrests are frequent, the number actually sentenced to immediate imprisonment for the offences is far smaller [7].
5. Why police activity has increased
Commentators, parliamentary speakers and advocacy groups link the increase to a combination of heightened online reporting, forces dedicating teams to social media monitoring, and laws that criminalise messages causing “annoyance”, “inconvenience” or “anxiety” — language critics call vague [4] [1] [5]. Lords debate participants flagged an increase of roughly 121% in such arrests since 2017 in parliamentary remarks citing the same media data [4].
6. Competing perspectives and political context
Civil‑liberties groups and free‑speech advocates portray the statistics as evidence of over‑policing of online speech and a chilling effect on expression [5]. Government spokespeople and some ministers argue police are enforcing laws passed by Parliament and say officers should prioritise serious crime, prompting calls from politicians to review the legislative framework [8] [3]. These competing framings — civil‑liberties alarm versus enforcement‑of‑law rationale — are present across the sources [5] [8].
7. Limitations and what is not answered by current reporting
Available sources do not provide a single, official Home Office annual figure broken down precisely by those two offence codes for every force; reporting relies on FOI returns and journalistic aggregation [3]. Available sources do not mention a definitive, government‑published national total that replaces the Times’ FOI‑based figure, nor do they always clarify how many arrests related specifically to public social‑media posts versus private messages or other communication channels [3] [1].
8. How to read the statistics responsibly
The custody‑data headline — ~12,000 arrests a year / “more than 30 a day” — is supported by multiple journalistic and parliamentary citations but comes with caveats: incomplete FOI returns, lack of central offence‑level Home Office publication, and a large gap between arrests and convictions [1] [3] [5]. Readers should treat the number as a strong indicator of substantial policing activity around online communications, not as a final, uncontested official tally.