The arrest is the punishment. Here is a man getting arrested and subsequently harassed by the Police for 13 weeks for just posting a picture of himself with a shotgun in America.

https://archive.is/bH56T

> These arrests include those arrested for terrorism (if the planning/act of terror includes any online communication in the UK), threats of violence, racist abuse, hate speech and unwanted communication

All of these attempts to "debunk" this statistic feel like they're missing the mark. How did the UK get a point where planning terrorism and making mean comments online go into the same statistic for arrests? Does it not seem strange that the second half of that list is worthy of arrest?

> If you look at convictions, only 137 people were actually sentenced in 2024.

This, again, does not help. Being arrested isn't a casual thing. It threatens everything from your job to your reputation and your relationships, even if you aren't convicted.

Thank you. I heard the number locally at a privacy conference. No hard data, but I saw them being terrified for 1984 becoming a reality. Even if there's no sentence, the real result is self-censorship, which is NOT shown up in ANY statistics.

Can you just imagine the amount of arrests we’d have in the US if simply saying really offensive things at officials was enough to get you arrested.

Using Carlin’s dirty words against others you dislike or quoting passages from historical books should not warrant arrests.

It also includes traveling to the United States where gun ownership is legal, and posting a picture of yourself holding a gun.

oh well as long as it's only happening to some people no problem then huh? That's okay?

Ahh yes reddit the most accurate location of truth finding. Could you at least link the source of the comment or are we supposed to take a random redditor as fact?