❓WHAT HAPPENED: A British X (formerly Twitter) user was sentenced to 18 months in prison for anti-immigration posts that were viewed just 33 times.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Luke Yarwood, 36, was the man the courts sentenced, with his brother-in-law reporting him to police.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The posts were sent between December 21, 2024, and January 29, 2025, in Bournemouth, England.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Start off burning every migrant hotel then head off to MPs’ houses and Parliament, we need to take over by FORCE.” – Luke Yarwood on X.
🎯IMPACT: The case highlights ongoing tensions around immigration, asylum, and censorship in the United Kingdom.
Luke Yarwood, a British X (formerly Twitter) user, has been imprisoned for 18 months after posting anti-immigration messages online that were viewed just 33 times. The posts were sent following a car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, by a Saudi immigrant in December 2024.
Yarwood was reported to the police by his brother-in-law, with whom he had a strained relationship. The case has drawn comparisons to that of Lucy Connolly, who was previously imprisoned for saying she would not care if hotels housing asylum seekers were set on fire following a mass stabbing targeting young girls, perpetrated by the son of two Rwandan migrants.
During sentencing, prosecutor Siobhan Linsley told the court that Yarwood’s messages, despite their limited audience, “had the potential to incite disorder,” particularly in areas around migrant hotels in Bournemouth. The defence argued that the posts were the “impotent rantings of a socially isolated man” and posed no realistic threat, pointing to his mental health struggles and lack of influence.
“Violence and murder is the only way now. Start off burning every migrant hotel then head off to MPs’ houses and Parliament, we need to take over by FORCE,” Yarwood wrote in one of the posts.
Judge Jonathan Fuller described the posts as “odious” and stated they were clearly intended to incite racial hatred and violence. He said immediate custody was required because of the risk such messages could pose if acted upon. Notably, crimes that most members of the public would consider far more serious, such as a hotel migrant sexually assaulting a child, have not resulted in prison terms in recent months, leading to complaints of two-tier justice.
The case comes amid growing scrutiny of how the British authorities police online speech. Thousands of people are arrested annually under communications and public order laws for social media posts deemed threatening or offensive. For instance, earlier in 2025, comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested over social media posts critical of transgender activists, sparking criticism from civil liberties advocates.
British police faced backlash after officers visited the home of an American cancer patient over Facebook posts, and a retired police officer was arrested following an X post, with commentators likening the raid on his home to “Stasi-style” tactics.
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