Elon Musk has suggested that the UK is governed by fascist principles due to the thousands of arrests made for social media posts labeled as “indecent, obscene or menacing.” He shared an unsourced chart from an anonymous account stating the UK led with 12,183 arrests, though the time frame for this data was unclear. Musk agreed, describing the situation as “real fascism.” In 2023, the UK recorded over 12,000 arrests related to free speech violations, with over 65,000 since 2017, prompting concern over potential abuse of power by authorities. A representative from Big Brother Watch criticized the police for focusing on non-illegal online posts, which he deemed a threat to freedom of expression.
Musk’s comments appear to be a reaction to the UK’s threats to ban X (formerly Twitter), partly due to concerns over explicit content generated by the AI chatbot Grok. Amidst these developments, the U.S. State Department indicated that no actions are ruled out if the UK proceeds with the ban, highlighting issues related to government control over public discourse.
