In a kingdom not so far away, the police visit private homes to inquire about a resident who has posted something on social media that “spreads hate,” “may incite violence,” or “provokes general offense.” A man was recently fined for burning a Quran while his knife-wielding assailant was spared incarceration. And a well-known humorist was met at the airport by armed officers for three social-media posts about trans people.
It sounds like Saudi Arabia or Qatar. But this is Britain in 2025. According to data obtained by The Times of London, police departments in the United Kingdom average 30 arrests a day for offensive posts on the internet. That’s nearly 11,000 per year. The country that gave the world John Stuart Mill and George Orwell now sends its constables to arrest thought criminals. Reply guys and red-pilled Facebook moms are doing time.
And this is a shame. Britain nurtured a culture that produced an intellectual tradition that exemplified and introduced the centrality of free speech for liberal democracy. In this episode of Breaking History, Eli Lake explores how a cradle of liberty became a nation of censors and snitches.
Listen to the episode below, or wherever you get your podcasts:
I stand corrected, though the detail is totally beside the point.
“No one is defending Social media that incites suicide”
Maybe I’m not privy to all the details, but as a free speech matter, shouldn’t we be defending this? Someone writes “kill yourself” to someone else on social media and that’s an actual crime?