Graham Linehan is an Irish comedian and former television writer, as well as a commentator who is particularly active on transgender issues — specifically, he opposes the transgender movement and thinks only people who were biologically born as women are in fact women. He is well known for co-creating the popular sitcoms “Father Ted” and the “IT Crowd.” He’s a funny man — a comedian, if I haven’t made that clear. 

What’s not so funny is that the authorities in Britan arrested and detained him. Why? Because of statements he made on X. Seriously.  

His statements were not violent, and do not contain illegal messages. They were provocative and anti-trans — you may disagree with them, but they aren’t beyond the pale. They don’t violate X’s terms of service. And in the U.S., they would be obviously protected by the First Amendment.  

But of course, the UK is different. 

And so, when Linehan landed at Heathrow Airport earlier this week, he was arrested by the police. He was interrogated, and finally let go — although the condition of his release was that he lost access to his X account. 

So much for free speech in Britain. 

The X post that got Graham Linehan in trouble was this: “If a trans identified male is in a female only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops, and if all else fails, punch him in the b–ls.” 

Now, genuine threats of violence are not protected speech if they are directed at a specific person and convey a sense of immediacy or imminent harm. That’s not what this tweet accomplishes. It’s a crude joke, playing off the fact that Linehan believes if you have the relevant anatomy, you are a man and not a woman. He is not actually threatening violence against a specific person.  

If you think that speech should be criminalized, then you must think any and all general calls for aggression against a specific group should be criminalized. Consider, then, the generic statement, “Punch Nazis,” which is a slogan that’s been used by antifa and the far left. It’s a stupid slogan, but it should not be criminalized.  

The same goes for what civil libertarian Michael Shermer writes on X: “When you can arrest a comedian at the airport for a post on X, you know that the UK has gone for total illiberalism when it comes to free speech. Orwellian doesn’t begin to capture this madness.” 

He’s exactly right. People must have the freedom to dissent from orthodoxy: They should not, cannot, must not be jailed for disagreeing with progressive gender theory. 

But some politicians in the UK seem to disagree. Here is Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, saying he thinks that arresting Linehan was the right thing to do.  

Now it bears repeating: The UK does not have the First Amendment, and this sort of thing can happen there. But it’s bad. And it’s why our own free speech rights here in the U.S. are worth fighting for and preserving at all costs. Even Western, democratic, enlightened Europe has fallen prey to the “safe space” mentality that it is more important to protect people’s feelings than to protect speech.  

In some sense, the U.S. is the last line of defense for unfettered free speech. Make no mistake — our own government, and our own law enforcement, would be deployed to enforce censorship if not for the First Amendment. We must defend it at all costs. 

Meanwhile, the silver lining here is that Graham Linehan’s treatment by UK authorities is inspiring furious denunciation everywhere — even in the pages of the mainstream media. And I salute The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis, and others, for recognizing that this arrest demonstrates “Europe’s Free Speech Problem.” 

It is a problem, and U.S. authorities like Vice President JD Vance are right to present it as such. 

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.