Official guidance has revealed that recipients of UK honours, including MBEs and knighthoods, could have their awards stripped for posting comments online judged to be offensive, even where no law has been broken. The forfeiture committee, which meets in secret, is now able to treat "hate incidents" — where someone perceives hostility or prejudice linked to characteristics such as race, religion or transgender identity — as grounds for revoking an honour. Free speech campaigners have warned this could deter people, particularly those with mainstream right-of-centre views, from accepting honours in future, and have called the criteria "far too broad".

The guidance emerged after homelessness campaigner Nick Buckley MBE obtained it via a Freedom of Information request, having himself faced a committee review over social media posts, including remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement and boxer Anthony Joshua, though he retained his award. The document states that a public figure's post on an open account with many followers would likely be judged more seriously than an identical post from a locked, low-follower account. The row coincides with a forthcoming Big Brother Watch report finding at least 62,199 people arrested in the UK over the past five years for "communications offences", with 18,510 charged and 12,292 convicted, some over posts as minor as viewing disparaging TikTok videos.