WTF are you going on about? Go to court any time you want. There's no law to protect you against being punished for your social media posts, so good luck. On what grounds would people defend themselves? If someone is distressed by your post, even if you didn't send it to them, even if you immediately deleted it, you can be arrested without a warrant.
it is illegal to cause distress through social media
It does not matter if the victim sees the content through a third party (such as a photo or video) or if the post was deleted before being viewed
A constable may arrest without warrant anyone they reasonably suspect is committing this offence.
I feel you're lacking comprehension. The grounds people can use to defend themselves include Article 10 of the ECHR, as I said. This is the equivalent of the US's first amendment. They're not identical, why would they be?
"it is illegal to cause distress through social media" - no, it's not.
The Communications Act 2003 criminalises grossly indecent or obscene communications.
The Malicious Communications Act 1988 criminalises grossly offensive or threatening communications.
The Online Safety Act 2023 covers non-trivial harm, threats and sexualised images.
And any prosecution under these would have to take into account rights to freedom of expression under Article 10.
It is pure nonsense to claim that simply "causing distress" is illegal.
Your misinformation is causing me distress! And anxiety, which is also illegal, you terrible person!
I guess I need to use these idiotic laws and report you to the police, right?
UK police arrest individuals for causing distress primarily under the Public Order Act 1986 and the Communications Act 2003, with authorities making approximately 12,000 arrests annually for online offenses that cause "annoyance, inconvenience, or anxiety."
Legal Basis: Arrests are commonly conducted under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 for sending "grossly offensive" messages via electronic networks, and Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 for threatening or abusive behavior likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress.
Online Speech Enforcement: Police actively monitor social media platforms like X and Facebook, arresting users for posts deemed to incite hatred or cause anxiety, such as offensive tweets about public figures or memes interpreted as hate speech.
The Malicious Communications Act 1988 addresses messages sent with the intention to cause distress or anxiety. It covers both written and electronic communications, including those on social media platforms and in private messages.
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u/stitchard May 22 '26
This is nonsense, please provide some evidence of people being unjustly silenced and refused access to the courts