Shooting range - school
In uk there are very strict laws about internet bullying, most arrest in the world for comments online was in uk . You can go to prison for comments and memes
Do all the plebs sharing these not realise all this shit talking about the UK, all the talk about immigration and pushing for far right leaders, Trump trying to break up the EU and start his own club including Russia and China and the US, massive tariffs for every county apart from Russia, there is only one world leader who really benefits from all of it, Putin definitely rigged the election in exchange for him to be his stooge didn’t he.
just because a man sucks off Putin and takes his money it doesn't mean that they are in a relationship... Its more of a friends with benefits kind of deal...
It is. And it's why I'm of the opinion that unless it is totally confronted across the globe, it'll inevitably come rushing back. I'm amused at the Europeans who think they can just isolate MAGA and it'll go away; that plan failed miserably with Putin's Russia.
The actual answer is because people who engage in violence and hate speech get punished foot because if you said those things in real life in front of someone’s face there would be equal consequence.
The Internet is not a little bubble where you get to say whatever you want.
Exactly. That's why North Korea is the best country in the world. They don't just jail people for twitter posts, they jail them for downloading twitter. Based.
People who have been arrested have been arrested for inciting violence, something which has been a crime in most Western countries for a very long time.
However, idiot yanks who drink their fascist overlords' coolaid nod along to Musk's stupidity because they lack basic critical thinkinh capacity.
As much as i love shitting on the yanks. The incredibly murky meaning of hate speech and "incitement to violence" has allowed an incredible amount of police overreach and just lazy policing in general.
The police apparently have the funds to scour social media like a bunch of basement dwelling incels but cant help when my phone gets stolen walking through london.
The police just recently shut down a major phone stealing group, in operation echostep, that was responsible for around 40% of phone thefts in the city.
I agree that there have been a few isolated instances of over-reach, however most of the situations that get reported by the right wing rags and that stupid fucking Nazi Musk as "Brit arrested for social media post" is actually, when you look at the police / court records, them explicitly calling for violence. The right wing idiots lie about it, and the right wing idiots believe the lies.
I also agree that I'd prefer the police to focus their time on the crimes more likely to affect me, but the real reason that petty criminality is rife is catastrophic underfunding of the police under 14 years of Tory government, not that they are using some of their resources tackling online hate speech.
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were trying to destroy someones life they would be prosecuted. That shows the majority are arrests over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment
The vast majority of people posting online are arrested for stalking, particularly involving domestic disputes.
And quite frankly the people posting these memes, maybe shouldn't come from a country with the 5th highest incarceration rate in the world, more than China, Iran, or North Korea.
Ah yes... China, Iran, and North Korea. Countries famous for being transparent about their justice systems and political prisoners, who also perform a lot of executions.
People can't be part of the prison population when you've executed them!
It's kinda funny though considering the TSA in the US has literally denied people access for sharing/having memes on their phone that are disparaging/mocking the current government.
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were inciting violence they would be prosecuted. That shows the majority are arrests over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment.
You actually don't go to jail for comments and memes, you are investigated for speech if your speech appears to be a credible incitement to violence, and only go to jail for inciting riots or credible threats of murder/attacks. All people who have gone to jail have been convicted of such, nobody has ever gone to jail for purely making a joke.
When you say "I'm sick of this airport, I'd like to see it blow up!" that's okay
When you say "I'm sick of this airport, I'm going to bomb it at 12:34 tomorrow using a homemade dirty" that's not okay. You'll probably get investigated at the very least.
And when you say "I'm sick of this airport, let's organize a terrorist cell to systematically destroy it, DM me for details", and people do DM you and you progress plans to beyond reasonable doubt, you're going to go to jail. Because of course you fucking are.
In regards to the sheer number of people jailed for this reason, it's usually around nationalists organizing riots, the burning down of migrant hotels, and coordinated attacks on immigrants and Muslims. All rightfully jailable offences. Whether it happened online or IRL is immaterial.
Organizing a hit squad isn't sacrosanct just because you're doing it online. Duh.
Actually, people go to jail, as someone pointed out, for making a point that annoys a sheriff, and then the DA pretends it was a threat to do a school shooting - oddly, this kind of thing happened to me too.
People go to jail before they're found guilty of anything. Now prison? That's when your convicted.
A problem? Poor people can't bail themselves out, and the DA offers them a plea deal for the time they've already spent in jail. All they have to do is say they're guilty and they get to go home. If they don't? They're staying in jail. So they plead guilty to things they're not guilty of. It's bullshit.
You cannot go to prison for comments or memes in the UK unless you are explicitly inciting violent or otherwise illegal behavior with the intent to do harm to others.
FIFY
They think the UK is tyrannical for saying 'hey maybe don't cyberbully gay people to death or call for places migrants live to get set on fire with them still inside'
That's the thing all these dumbass right wing geezers will say with a straight face "I can't even say <insert something stupid> without getting arrested!"
"We're the only ones with free speech!" say people from the country where books and drag shows are being banned and the government is literally exercising the power of the state to bully law firms and universities into saying the "right" things.
Think this is what people always fail to understand. Actual true free speech is going to contain nonsense as well as factual information. That is what happens when you have free speech...
That's the fun part. Setting vague laws/precedence allows them to go after whoever they want. That's the fundamental problem. Smooth sailing until you piss off the wrong person (or you're associated with the the unpopular minority) ... then suddenly you're getting thrown in a cage for some Internet post you made 5 years ago.
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were inciting violence they would be prosecuted. They are being arrested over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment.
Pretty much. Unless you’re inciting violence they know they can’t really do anything, so they just show up to intimidate being the governments little thought enforcement thugs.
Of course with the removal of juries, for only short sentences right now, the stepping stones have been put in place for more corrupt systems.
And just wait until the powers that be have a digital ID system in place.
It’d take international foreign journalists and/or spies to actually out any corruption in the same system that locked innocent workers up for not paying the post office protection racket.
But many fail
to understand that having the cops knocking on your door or taking you to the station for words, even without trial and conviction is intimidation and harassment in itself already, and therefore a huge attack on free speech...
A lot of us are afraid to express an opinion about just because of the side yes or frawn we'd get from people around us... So imagine having three cops coming for you because you said controversial things?
I mean there WAS the guy recently who was arrested for posting a picture he took at a shooting range on vacation in Florida, which broke no laws and he was released after being held as long as he could be without being charged. If that’s not textbook abuse of government power then idk what is 🤷♂️
Even The Economist - a liberal British paper that is constantly criticising the far right and Trump etc - disagrees with UK digital hate speech laws. They literally argue it's become a lazy way for police to meet their arrest quotas.
Examples they gave in a May special on the issue included parents who had been held in cells overnight for complaining in a whatsapp group about the number of asylum seeker children that had been placed in their child's kindergarten
You're right, I was paraphrasing. Their point (one of them) was the police love hate speech laws because they take very few resources to investigate essentially
Way to minimize the situation. One man’s joke is another’s attack on all of humanity. Who decides which is which? They can’t even show a little patriotism by flying the Union Jack without some dumb mf claiming it’s xenophobic
I remember this because I was on twitter right as the news broke and I literally watched Elon Musk essentially start the riot by reposting people saying it was a Muslim immigrant, mind you it wasn't even an hour after the initial report came out. He just reposted some misinformation with a thinky emoji and it snowballed, that guy is a menace to society. This is a right wing narrative about censorship in Europe when in reality Elon is just meddling in European politics to get the far right parties elected, that man needs to be stopped he is one of the most evil people on earth.
The guy who did it had literally played Dr Who on a Children in Need advert a few years before as a kid. Sort of a long shot to the idea of a crazed migrant fresh off a small boat.
Nobody has ever faced criminal charges in the UK over sharing memes, they have faced them for inciting racial hatred on social media.
Jon Richelieu-Booth was arrested in the UK for posting a vacation photo of himself holding a gun in Florida, in a meadow on private property, clearly not threatening anyone. He was in prison for 13 days, and was treated significantly worse by the UK police than were several recent actual murderers who openly cited the race of their victims as justification for killing them.
Downvote me if you want. Top answer is an American talking shit.
You can be arrested for inciting unrest on the internet in the UK. So for example if I was to go and say that people should gather together and start attacking immigrants on the street for no reason other than them not being British, then go out of my way to setup an online group for it and organise a time to meet up, that shit is racist asf and trying to gather support for those kinds of actions is dangerous behaviour. It gets shut down quickly because threats like that get taken seriously rather than ignored. If it were to be ignored, people might die.
Not sure how it is hard to comprehend. I can also quite plainly say that next to every single British politician is a useless piece of shit and... Guess what? Nothing will happen. Crazy.
People have been and continue to be arrested, charged, convicted and sometimes jailed for making jokes online or posting memes that are deemed to be grossly offensive. It is less common these days but it still happens. The law used is s126 of the communications act.
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were inciting violence they would be prosecuted. They are being arrested over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment.
So a couple gets detained for what was somehow perceived as harassment. The couple then said it wasn't right. The police held their hands up and said 'we fucked up'. The couple got paid £20,000 in compensation for it.
The arrest was ridiculous. The police acknowledged it. Since this post was initially a comparison post I'd love to see the US police force take accountability for bad policing in a similar way.
And yet in America you can be jailed for saying something bad about the current administration, or having a meme. Hell they are even wanting 5 years of social media to make sure you haven't said anything nasty about Trump in the past few years or it's off to the ICE detention center for you. Which is worse than jail.
What this joke is demonstrating is that right wing nut jobs in the USA think that inciting a mob to set fire to migrant accommodation with people trapped inside is "just memes lol".
Stewie's British cousin here. The reference to "memes" is a right-wing talking point to paint the UK as a place that suppresses freedom of speech. It should actually say "hate speech" instead of memes. In 2024, we had riots triggered by a non-white young male murdering children at a dance academy. Misinformation was spread and "memes" is a way of minimising "harmful hate speech" that promoted white supremacy and rioting behaviours leading to the far right feeling empowered to rampage our streets, intimidate mosques, and assault police officers trying to keep the peace. The people who created this tweet, and some other social media posts, are being taken to court and a prison sentence for hate speech. We're quite happy for freedom of speech, but don't think doing something that is illegal or goes against societal good doesn't carry real life consequences. No one is being jailed for memes.
Edit: Clarifying what "memes" is actually being disguised as.
This is coming from the country where they want 5 years worth of social media to see if you were nasty to his Royal Orangeness, or his team of dipshits, before they’ll let you in the country?
This is how americans make themselves feel better about the fact that they've got armed, masked police abducting people off the streets without due process, and that actually, they're the authoritarian hellhole.
Some idiots are trying to form violent mobs and getting punished for it, other idiots are telling themselves they're only being jailed for memes.
Often the same idiots who see no problem with people being fired or prosecuted in the US for sharing things Charlie Kirk actually said, without realising that's what they're complaining about the UK supposedly doing.
There are plenty of American redditors who would like to jail people for memes. If the meme doesn't align with their politics they would happily throw them in jail and never look back.
OP, so your post is not removed, please reply to this comment with your best guess of what this meme means! Everyone else, this is PETER explains the joke. Have fun and reply as your favorite fictional character for top level responses!
The american right has infiltrated british social media and flooded it with shitty memes about how we live in a left wing police state. This is so they can use us as an example to scare their populace into complying with Trumpian policies.
It's a double standard in American right wing politics.
In America TV companies are bullied into firing presenters, Universities are defunded and students deported for having a view contrary to Maga, but this doesn't impact free speech apparently.
In the UK they are quite strong on Hate Speech, occasionally going further than others if there is a link to violence or a tedious link to terrorism.
As a result Maga types joke there is no freedom in the UK, despite peaceful speech being better tolerated.
It means the guy who made this meme doesn't understand the difference between making a public call to harm others on social media, and a meme.
The fact that other countries don't investigate or prosecute people for calling for violence on social media is actually beyond odd. Like somehow doing it online doesn't count.. despite us all being permanently online these days.
And this is coming from someone who hates the online safety act.
There have been people in the UK sent to jail for memes they shared online.
The missing context of that is these weren't just regular memes. These were memes threatening violence or part of a targeted bullying/harassment campaign against someone.
Also, this is coming from a place where masked people are kidnapping people off the street before any actual checks, representatives are referring to the President as a King and shows are being pulled off the air because they upset the leader
Posting a meme that hurts someone's feelings can land you in jail in the UK. They arrest thousands of people for them shenanigans. I never thought I thought I would see the UK be more authoritarian than Russia or China. Will we soon see them go full Iran and start hanging offenders from cranes?
No one goes to jail for just entering a meme. Pisses me off the right in America lies about this. There are laws about racial and sexual harassment and that’s correct but a single comment is not getting you sent to jail unless I t is particularly disgusting.
People have been arrested and charged for posting memes in the UK (and other Eurpopean countries), hence you should be very happy to be an American and have freedom of speech (if you are one). Here is a list of examples:
Darren Brady (2022): A British Army veteran was arrested by police in Hampshire after he re-shared a meme on social media that depicted a pride flag in the shape of a swastika. Body-cam footage of the arrest went viral, in which an officer stated the post "caused anxiety". He was arrested under the Malicious Communications Act but later released without charge. The incident became a significant talking point for free speech advocates.
Pete North (2025): A blogger was arrested at his home in North Yorkshire for posting a meme on social media that included the words "F*** Hamas" and other controversial comments related to Palestine and Islam. Police confirmed the arrest was on suspicion of "publishing or distributing written material intended to stir up racial hatred". He was released after several hours of questioning and no charges were brought, but the event drew international attention and debate about police priorities.
Joseph Kelly (2022): A man in Scotland was convicted and ordered to perform 150 hours of unpaid work for a "grossly offensive" tweet he posted about the late charity fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore. The tweet was considered crude and drew widespread criticism, as well as debate over the boundaries of free speech and the law.
Lee Dunn (2024): A man was jailed for eight weeks in Cumbria for posting three "grossly offensive" images with captions on social media in the wake of public disorder. He pleaded guilty to sending a grossly offensive message.
Tyler Kay and Jordan Parlour (2024): These two men were sentenced to 38 months and 20 months in prison, respectively, for stirring up racial hatred online during the summer riots. Their posts were deemed to have contributed to the violence and racism on the streets.
i am pretty sure i can enter the UK without having Police check all my memes that i posted the last 5 years to check if i might say something against the supreme leader but ok
![[ Removed by moderator ]](https://i.redd.it/p8awpcuslp6g1.jpeg){kind=link}
Debate politics in a different sub. Rule 4.
Shooting range - school In uk there are very strict laws about internet bullying, most arrest in the world for comments online was in uk . You can go to prison for comments and memes
Oi bruv, you got a loicence fuh dat opinion?
Mate we're not Irish, wtf
Well, there's no one as Irish as Barack O'bama
Wee Barry O’Bama, the Dunham’s grandson? He was a good lad, I wonder what happened to him?
I eard e went to duh stats las I eard e did
Thanks, Peter's drunken Irish dad
was dat before he tunrt turdy tree?
Haha I love your profile pic fellow Vance avatar club member
Naturally. O'Leary, O'Reily, O'Hare and O'Hara can't hold a candle to him.
His granddaddy’s daddy was from Moneygall, a small Irish village, well known to you all
Reads like cockney lol
Yeah, they dont spell like that. Just sound like that when they talk
/s
I dunno man, maybe in somerset
Woah is that bullying? Call the constable
UKnian?
U got a license for not being irish?
What's the last bit of the name again? United Kingdom of something, something, Northern something.
I keep forgetting 🤷
You get a lot of Irish people calling you bruv?
Translation- Excuse me good sir, do you perhaps have a license for the opinion you just gave?
Licence
https://preview.redd.it/5b7yu7fjws6g1.jpeg?width=494&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9915c048376a1833148d599143450baea8e1ea1b
You got a loicense fer dat loicense, guv?
Lmao
You can go to prison for incitement to violence. It’s a little different.
Do all the plebs sharing these not realise all this shit talking about the UK, all the talk about immigration and pushing for far right leaders, Trump trying to break up the EU and start his own club including Russia and China and the US, massive tariffs for every county apart from Russia, there is only one world leader who really benefits from all of it, Putin definitely rigged the election in exchange for him to be his stooge didn’t he.
It’s soft red-pilling anti-UK government in order to install the kind of virulent racists that will cut regulations for Elon.
Y'all did brexit all on your own
Yeah another thing Farage campaigned for, he’s defiantly not under Russian influence, right?
just because a man sucks off Putin and takes his money it doesn't mean that they are in a relationship... Its more of a friends with benefits kind of deal...
Putin: "I did not have sex with that woman"
Why is Vladmir shit in bed? He doesn't Put in the effort
Brexit was heavily pushed by russia and right wing American oligarchs as we are seeing from the Epstein emails.
Does seem to be a dark pool of globalist oligarchs causing all this trouble.
It is. And it's why I'm of the opinion that unless it is totally confronted across the globe, it'll inevitably come rushing back. I'm amused at the Europeans who think they can just isolate MAGA and it'll go away; that plan failed miserably with Putin's Russia.
Not quite. CSIS suggests that there may have been russian influence. Plus Cambridge Analytica. It was a targeted, deliberate operation.
The actual answer is because people who engage in violence and hate speech get punished foot because if you said those things in real life in front of someone’s face there would be equal consequence.
The Internet is not a little bubble where you get to say whatever you want.
Exactly. That's why North Korea is the best country in the world. They don't just jail people for twitter posts, they jail them for downloading twitter. Based.
aaah yes, without the freedom to harass, threatenening violence and murder against innocent people, we'd be just like north Korea!
The US heavily punishes people for memes as well, they just use the border
Yeah this is fucking stupid.
People who have been arrested have been arrested for inciting violence, something which has been a crime in most Western countries for a very long time.
However, idiot yanks who drink their fascist overlords' coolaid nod along to Musk's stupidity because they lack basic critical thinkinh capacity.
As much as i love shitting on the yanks. The incredibly murky meaning of hate speech and "incitement to violence" has allowed an incredible amount of police overreach and just lazy policing in general.
The police apparently have the funds to scour social media like a bunch of basement dwelling incels but cant help when my phone gets stolen walking through london.
The police just recently shut down a major phone stealing group, in operation echostep, that was responsible for around 40% of phone thefts in the city.
I agree that there have been a few isolated instances of over-reach, however most of the situations that get reported by the right wing rags and that stupid fucking Nazi Musk as "Brit arrested for social media post" is actually, when you look at the police / court records, them explicitly calling for violence. The right wing idiots lie about it, and the right wing idiots believe the lies.
I also agree that I'd prefer the police to focus their time on the crimes more likely to affect me, but the real reason that petty criminality is rife is catastrophic underfunding of the police under 14 years of Tory government, not that they are using some of their resources tackling online hate speech.
Musk is such a shit stirring little asshole when it comes to the UK. And anything else really, but he’s being a particular tryhard with the UK.
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were trying to destroy someones life they would be prosecuted. That shows the majority are arrests over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment
This guy was arrested for having a picture of him with a gun from his US holiday on his LinkedIn, he is far closer to being the median arrest than any of the cases you say are justified.
So can you in the US.
https://www.thefire.org/news/he-spent-37-days-jail-facebook-post-now-fire-has-his-back
https://preview.redd.it/w6tjwx4ulr6g1.jpeg?width=1206&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ece40e8a144de6c13bbe001e3b1aa41aa3734337
The vast majority of people posting online are arrested for stalking, particularly involving domestic disputes.
And quite frankly the people posting these memes, maybe shouldn't come from a country with the 5th highest incarceration rate in the world, more than China, Iran, or North Korea.
Ah yes... China, Iran, and North Korea. Countries famous for being transparent about their justice systems and political prisoners, who also perform a lot of executions.
People can't be part of the prison population when you've executed them!
Records fudging and executions, modern problems require modern solutions
You guys execute a lot of people, too.
It's kinda funny though considering the TSA in the US has literally denied people access for sharing/having memes on their phone that are disparaging/mocking the current government.
The most arrests in the world thing is entirely made up, and you need to find better sources of information.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/tommy-robinson-uk-speech-claims-b1248644.html
In Romania ,Police can fine you or imprison you if you make fun of it on the internet
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I agree on the incitement to violence stuff.
But they do also police jokes. Like the guy who taught his pug to do a Nazi salute because he thought it’d be funny.
He was fined for that? No prison time?
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were inciting violence they would be prosecuted. That shows the majority are arrests over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment.
People have been arrested for complaining about their school being slow to recruit a new headmaster in a private Whatsapp group, that is far closer to being the median arrest than any of the cases you say are inciting violence.
You actually don't go to jail for comments and memes, you are investigated for speech if your speech appears to be a credible incitement to violence, and only go to jail for inciting riots or credible threats of murder/attacks. All people who have gone to jail have been convicted of such, nobody has ever gone to jail for purely making a joke.
When you say "I'm sick of this airport, I'd like to see it blow up!" that's okay
When you say "I'm sick of this airport, I'm going to bomb it at 12:34 tomorrow using a homemade dirty" that's not okay. You'll probably get investigated at the very least.
And when you say "I'm sick of this airport, let's organize a terrorist cell to systematically destroy it, DM me for details", and people do DM you and you progress plans to beyond reasonable doubt, you're going to go to jail. Because of course you fucking are.
In regards to the sheer number of people jailed for this reason, it's usually around nationalists organizing riots, the burning down of migrant hotels, and coordinated attacks on immigrants and Muslims. All rightfully jailable offences. Whether it happened online or IRL is immaterial.
Organizing a hit squad isn't sacrosanct just because you're doing it online. Duh.
Actually, people go to jail, as someone pointed out, for making a point that annoys a sheriff, and then the DA pretends it was a threat to do a school shooting - oddly, this kind of thing happened to me too.
People go to jail before they're found guilty of anything. Now prison? That's when your convicted.
A problem? Poor people can't bail themselves out, and the DA offers them a plea deal for the time they've already spent in jail. All they have to do is say they're guilty and they get to go home. If they don't? They're staying in jail. So they plead guilty to things they're not guilty of. It's bullshit.
You cannot go to prison for comments or memes in the UK unless you are explicitly inciting violent or otherwise illegal behavior with the intent to do harm to others. FIFY
You can go to prison for being offensive. Section 127 of the communications act
Not quite just memes and comments. They were inciting hatred and violence.
They think the UK is tyrannical for saying 'hey maybe don't cyberbully gay people to death or call for places migrants live to get set on fire with them still inside'
This is it. I've posted loads of shit over the years. Never had a knock. Nor any friends I know.
If posting or sharing controversial memes was a crime in the UK I’d be an Azkaban.
Just one Azkaban though, right?
What do you call controversial?
What if you said that Azkaban only have black wizards in it because they're much more prone to commit crimes?
What if I were to say that 50% of avada kedavra spells are cast by only 13% of the wizard population?
That's the thing all these dumbass right wing geezers will say with a straight face "I can't even say <insert something stupid> without getting arrested!"
Mfer you just said it.
It's just US propaganda, they believe they are the only one with "freedom of speech"
But it's just Freedumb of speech, spouting nonsense
"We're the only ones with free speech!" say people from the country where books and drag shows are being banned and the government is literally exercising the power of the state to bully law firms and universities into saying the "right" things.
Americans are a special breed, man.
And war hero, astronaut, Senators quoting the law is illegal sedition, punishable by death.
It’s from the Nazi playbook, literally! Goebbels wrote about it. Accuse the enemy of doing the very thing you are doing.
If the UK is so bad? Then why are so many Americans moving here?
In the Divided States of Pedophilia, “Freedom” is just a buzzword.
Think this is what people always fail to understand. Actual true free speech is going to contain nonsense as well as factual information. That is what happens when you have free speech...
Post the N word and the one that means cigarette on your social media. Let's see what happens next
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robmoore1979_countries-with-the-highest-amount-of-arrests-activity-7377224184629735424-WeoU
UK is the country with the most arrests for online posts/comments
Yeah if it's not happening right outside your front door its not happening. Just like Rotherham, right?
Do you post loads of shit about your rape gangs or anything critical of how Pakistani / similar groups behave in the UK? If no, then you’re safe.
That's the fun part. Setting vague laws/precedence allows them to go after whoever they want. That's the fundamental problem. Smooth sailing until you piss off the wrong person (or you're associated with the the unpopular minority) ... then suddenly you're getting thrown in a cage for some Internet post you made 5 years ago.
Yet
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were inciting violence they would be prosecuted. They are being arrested over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment.
People have been arrested for complaining about their school being slow to recruit a new headmaster in a private Whatsapp group, that is far closer to being the median arrest than any of the cases you say are inciting violence.
Pretty much. Unless you’re inciting violence they know they can’t really do anything, so they just show up to intimidate being the governments little thought enforcement thugs.
Of course with the removal of juries, for only short sentences right now, the stepping stones have been put in place for more corrupt systems.
And just wait until the powers that be have a digital ID system in place.
It’d take international foreign journalists and/or spies to actually out any corruption in the same system that locked innocent workers up for not paying the post office protection racket.
So, you want people bullied on the internet. /s
Charges are dropped... Indeed
But many fail to understand that having the cops knocking on your door or taking you to the station for words, even without trial and conviction is intimidation and harassment in itself already, and therefore a huge attack on free speech...
A lot of us are afraid to express an opinion about just because of the side yes or frawn we'd get from people around us... So imagine having three cops coming for you because you said controversial things?
Don’t worry, they’re doing away with those pesky jury trails for ‘menial offences’, so, in the future, straight to jail.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5lxg2l0lqo
I mean that's what they claim the law is for. In reality it's don't call out any of your local officials
Didn’t the U.S. president use his influence to take a comedian off the air for insulting him?
it was kimmel joking about trumps reaction to the CK shooting
Right, that’s who it was! Can’t be being mean to daddy like that.
Also ban people fron the country for memes. Can't forget that.
Nobody is being imprisoned for calling out local officials.
I mean there WAS the guy recently who was arrested for posting a picture he took at a shooting range on vacation in Florida, which broke no laws and he was released after being held as long as he could be without being charged. If that’s not textbook abuse of government power then idk what is 🤷♂️
Even The Economist - a liberal British paper that is constantly criticising the far right and Trump etc - disagrees with UK digital hate speech laws. They literally argue it's become a lazy way for police to meet their arrest quotas.
Examples they gave in a May special on the issue included parents who had been held in cells overnight for complaining in a whatsapp group about the number of asylum seeker children that had been placed in their child's kindergarten
Arrest quotas aren't a thing in the UK. The prisons are already too full and people are being released early
You're right, I was paraphrasing. Their point (one of them) was the police love hate speech laws because they take very few resources to investigate essentially
Stop bootlicking the police.
Or for arresting someone for taking a picture with a gun in the US: https://nypost.com/2025/12/04/us-news/british-man-says-he-was-arrested-after-posting-photos-with-guns-on-july-4-trip-to-florida/
https://youtu.be/H0-VlR4OHgI?si=y4OPtUerSbykNbKR
Arrested for attending a protest
No they are tyrannical for giving there government so much power in deciding what you can and can’t say.
Bootlicker
Censoring free speech is tyrannical. Hate speech must be considered free speech if free speech is going to mean anything.
Way to minimize the situation. One man’s joke is another’s attack on all of humanity. Who decides which is which? They can’t even show a little patriotism by flying the Union Jack without some dumb mf claiming it’s xenophobic
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A parent comment deleted by the moderator makes it incredibly funny to me.
I remember this because I was on twitter right as the news broke and I literally watched Elon Musk essentially start the riot by reposting people saying it was a Muslim immigrant, mind you it wasn't even an hour after the initial report came out. He just reposted some misinformation with a thinky emoji and it snowballed, that guy is a menace to society. This is a right wing narrative about censorship in Europe when in reality Elon is just meddling in European politics to get the far right parties elected, that man needs to be stopped he is one of the most evil people on earth.
The guy who did it had literally played Dr Who on a Children in Need advert a few years before as a kid. Sort of a long shot to the idea of a crazed migrant fresh off a small boat.
In the words of the high-class British porn lady, "Well done."
Jon Richelieu-Booth was arrested in the UK for posting a vacation photo of himself holding a gun in Florida, in a meadow on private property, clearly not threatening anyone. He was in prison for 13 days, and was treated significantly worse by the UK police than were several recent actual murderers who openly cited the race of their victims as justification for killing them.
Quick search; he was also arrested on stalking charges.
Is stalking acceptable in the states? Like racism, bigotry, shooting children and treating women as 2nd class citizens?
Those in scummy glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
People from the UK take pictures of themselves with firearms - while on holiday, all the time. It’s not illegal.
So, begs the question. What else did he do?
Do they really say aeroplane?
Yes, old bean, we do.
No we say plane
Aeroplane.
What else do people call it?
Never listened to Pink Floyd’s Good Bye Blue Sky?
“Look Mummy, there’s an aeroplane up in the sky”
Aluminum and Aluminium
Iron and Ironium
Cope and copium
Downvote me if you want. Top answer is an American talking shit.
You can be arrested for inciting unrest on the internet in the UK. So for example if I was to go and say that people should gather together and start attacking immigrants on the street for no reason other than them not being British, then go out of my way to setup an online group for it and organise a time to meet up, that shit is racist asf and trying to gather support for those kinds of actions is dangerous behaviour. It gets shut down quickly because threats like that get taken seriously rather than ignored. If it were to be ignored, people might die.
Not sure how it is hard to comprehend. I can also quite plainly say that next to every single British politician is a useless piece of shit and... Guess what? Nothing will happen. Crazy.
People have been and continue to be arrested, charged, convicted and sometimes jailed for making jokes online or posting memes that are deemed to be grossly offensive. It is less common these days but it still happens. The law used is s126 of the communications act.
The majority of the 12,000 arrests a year over social media are dropped which implies there was no crime, if they were inciting violence they would be prosecuted. They are being arrested over speech the government doesn't like, with the goal being a 'chilling effect' where the process is the punishment.
People have been arrested for complaining about their school being slow to recruit a new headmaster in a private Whatsapp group, that is far closer to being the median arrest than any of the cases you say are inciting violence.
So a couple gets detained for what was somehow perceived as harassment. The couple then said it wasn't right. The police held their hands up and said 'we fucked up'. The couple got paid £20,000 in compensation for it.
The arrest was ridiculous. The police acknowledged it. Since this post was initially a comparison post I'd love to see the US police force take accountability for bad policing in a similar way.
And yet in America you can be jailed for saying something bad about the current administration, or having a meme. Hell they are even wanting 5 years of social media to make sure you haven't said anything nasty about Trump in the past few years or it's off to the ICE detention center for you. Which is worse than jail.
https://preview.redd.it/6wi9lpb3dq6g1.png?width=712&format=png&auto=webp&s=f6eb1f0d0aa7682b032da638b43984baa2913e19
When did this come in?
These days...
Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milošević has let himself go
He looks fat and depressed. And fat.
Cant even call ya self British anymore
This from the government that insists on 5 years social media history for tourists. Fuck off.
What this joke is demonstrating is that right wing nut jobs in the USA think that inciting a mob to set fire to migrant accommodation with people trapped inside is "just memes lol".
Pyotr
Didn't some guy get banned from America from a meme of JD Vance he had on his phone?
Pot calling the kettle black?
Stewie's British cousin here. The reference to "memes" is a right-wing talking point to paint the UK as a place that suppresses freedom of speech. It should actually say "hate speech" instead of memes. In 2024, we had riots triggered by a non-white young male murdering children at a dance academy. Misinformation was spread and "memes" is a way of minimising "harmful hate speech" that promoted white supremacy and rioting behaviours leading to the far right feeling empowered to rampage our streets, intimidate mosques, and assault police officers trying to keep the peace. The people who created this tweet, and some other social media posts, are being taken to court and a prison sentence for hate speech. We're quite happy for freedom of speech, but don't think doing something that is illegal or goes against societal good doesn't carry real life consequences. No one is being jailed for memes.
Edit: Clarifying what "memes" is actually being disguised as.
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Ironic, considering Trump wants to check tourists' social media history!
The joke is that americans claim uk has no freedom of speech and csn be jailed for memes.
The unintended joke is that america has done the same with memes of trump and JD Vance and have been using ICE to deporting people, even tourists
memesCALLS FOR VIOLENCE AND/OR MURDER/MANSLAUGHTERAlso... Fries and Chips aren't the same, we use both words for different things.
Fries are thin and crispy, American style.
Chips are thick and fluffy, Chippy style.
don't they call it the subway in glasgow?
Didnt' the US deport people with the JD Vance meme on their devices?
Jaguar = “Jag-you-are”
Subway is incorrect. The Glasgow Subway was built before the New York one.
(It was temporarily renamed underground for a while but changed back)
It is far right dog whistle rubbish
I think you mean inciting hate crimes (not you OP but the meme producer, I know you’re probs chill)
This is coming from the country where they want 5 years worth of social media to see if you were nasty to his Royal Orangeness, or his team of dipshits, before they’ll let you in the country?
Away and boil yer heed
This is how americans make themselves feel better about the fact that they've got armed, masked police abducting people off the streets without due process, and that actually, they're the authoritarian hellhole.
Some idiots are trying to form violent mobs and getting punished for it, other idiots are telling themselves they're only being jailed for memes.
Often the same idiots who see no problem with people being fired or prosecuted in the US for sharing things Charlie Kirk actually said, without realising that's what they're complaining about the UK supposedly doing.
Get your social media checked at the border!
There are plenty of American redditors who would like to jail people for memes. If the meme doesn't align with their politics they would happily throw them in jail and never look back.
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2 years in jail means you can watch memes or going to jail because of memes
The american right has infiltrated british social media and flooded it with shitty memes about how we live in a left wing police state. This is so they can use us as an example to scare their populace into complying with Trumpian policies.
It's a double standard in American right wing politics.
In America TV companies are bullied into firing presenters, Universities are defunded and students deported for having a view contrary to Maga, but this doesn't impact free speech apparently.
In the UK they are quite strong on Hate Speech, occasionally going further than others if there is a link to violence or a tedious link to terrorism.
As a result Maga types joke there is no freedom in the UK, despite peaceful speech being better tolerated.
I live in britain and i genuinely hate memes
*Deportation | 2 years in jail
It means the guy who made this meme doesn't understand the difference between making a public call to harm others on social media, and a meme.
The fact that other countries don't investigate or prosecute people for calling for violence on social media is actually beyond odd. Like somehow doing it online doesn't count.. despite us all being permanently online these days.
And this is coming from someone who hates the online safety act.
That’s ok, neither do they
the funny thing is, the us is as bad, if not worse
Being shot- a calm interaction with a police officer
US: unfavorable memes about the president any time over the past 5 years? Disappeared by ICE
Lol I never new they yall it aeroplane over the pond 🤓
This 2years in jail goes deeply underground and is not amusing.
There have been people in the UK sent to jail for memes they shared online.
The missing context of that is these weren't just regular memes. These were memes threatening violence or part of a targeted bullying/harassment campaign against someone.
Memes = denied entry to freedom loving USA or locked up and deported .
Funny, knowing USA wants full access to social media of everybody visiting.
its americans thinking the uk is some sort of prison state with no free speech
its people getting arrested for planning violence, not "memes"
anyone who tells you its memes is just trying to manipulate you into thinking theyre trying to take away your free speech
This is the country that ranks 57th for freedom of press making fun of the UK for its hate speech laws.
It should also be noted that the UK scores higher than the US on the freedom of expression index too.
The UK has very strict laws on what can be published online, leading many UK citizens being arrested for posting memes
Strange stuff going on in the west...
Land of the free
You can go to jail in the uk for offensive memes.
lifetime on the sex offender list - public urination
Buuuuut - if you can put people in prison for memes you don’t like…. Then power shifts …. Hmmmmm
It's some right-wing guy taking the Elon Musk approach of "Watch out for the UK, they have no free speech", when the people being arrested are calling for the Prime Minister to be assassinated, immigrants to be killed and for trans people to be assaulted
Also, this is coming from a place where masked people are kidnapping people off the street before any actual checks, representatives are referring to the President as a King and shows are being pulled off the air because they upset the leader
Posting a meme that hurts someone's feelings can land you in jail in the UK. They arrest thousands of people for them shenanigans. I never thought I thought I would see the UK be more authoritarian than Russia or China. Will we soon see them go full Iran and start hanging offenders from cranes?
No one goes to jail for just entering a meme. Pisses me off the right in America lies about this. There are laws about racial and sexual harassment and that’s correct but a single comment is not getting you sent to jail unless I t is particularly disgusting.
Because we have memes but they can get arrested for jokes online is the joke.
If you say something the government doesn’t want spreading around— like a personally held opinion about the state of immigration—
Two things can happen depending on where you are.
In the US, you start a flame war.
In the UK, you’re imprisoned for 38 months and have your life destroyed.
The UK has a habit of throwing people in jail over memes. As in memes OVER this censorship they preform.
America is literally prosecuting people for anti Republican memes
The UK has a shitty government, just like their food.
Except that people in the U.S. have literally served prison time for memes.
People have been arrested and charged for posting memes in the UK (and other Eurpopean countries), hence you should be very happy to be an American and have freedom of speech (if you are one). Here is a list of examples:
Try getting into both countries with a critical meme about their respective leaders on your phone and you'll see what a shitty meme this is ;)
i am pretty sure i can enter the UK without having Police check all my memes that i posted the last 5 years to check if i might say something against the supreme leader but ok
In the UK, you can get arrested/jailtime for posting opinions/pictures your betters don't like, even if it was done in a different country.