Comedy writer Graham Linehan, creator of The IT Crowd, was arrested at Heathrow Airport—for tweets. Not threats, not crimes, not violence. Tweets. According to his own account, five armed police officers were waiting for him as he stepped off the plane, hauling him away like a terrorist because he dared to mock transgender activism online. They locked him in a cell, confiscated his belongings, and slapped him with a gag order banning him from using X. The stress was so severe his blood pressure spiked into stroke territory, and he ended up in hospital. What did he actually write? That he hates misogynists and homophobes, that trans activists smell bad, and that women should fight back if men invade female-only spaces: “punch him in the balls.” Police called that a threat to trans people. Meanwhile, the U.K. is plagued by soaring knife crime and sexual assaults — yet resources are being spent on arresting a comedy writer for words on the internet. Linehan’s bail conditions forbid him from going back on social media until he meets with authorities again in October. We recently had Linehan on Redacted because we respect his courage in standing up against authoritarian madness. Watch the interview for yourself and decide: is this really someone who should be arrested for his humor? This episode has earned widespread condemnation of the U.K. government’s heavy-handed approach. Let’s hope Linehan has a barrister strong enough to show the state that this is not the kind of society the West will tolerate. The post U.K. Arrests Comedy Writer for Tweets appeared first on Redacted.