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Bomb Tweet Ruled as a Joke
Friday 27th July 2012 | Osh
A man convicted for tweeting a message threatening to blow up an airport today was successful in his appeal against the guilty verdict.
The case is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding the social media network site and comes days after the US congress announced plans to archive every public tweet since the site's birth in 2006.
Paul Chambers was found guilty in May 2010 for tweeting after his local airport, Robin Hood Airport near Doncaster, shut following heavy snow. The tweet stated "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" Thought of as merely a joke, the message very nearly blew up in his face after he was fined £385, ordered to pay court costs of £600 and his first appeal was rejected by the Crown Court in November 2010.
The overruling, hailed as a victory for common sense, was taken in good humour by Mr Chambers who later tweeted ‘Just realise I've now lost my bad boy image. Such as it was. Damn.’ You can follow Paul on twitter @pauljchambers or read his blog ‘Something Witty’ at http://pauljchambers.wordpress.com/
Despite the humorous outlook by Mr Chambers, a fitness fanatic who still remains unemployed, the case comes against a backdrop of serious issues and controversies surrounding the site. With continual racist remark allegations made against Premier League footballers seeming to be ever growing and the US Congress’s plans to record every public tweet, this case shines a small ray of light on the continued exposure of the darker side of social networking in the media.
During a time of increased tensions surrounding human rights, freedom of speech and civil liberties the original verdict and Congress’s new plans would lead many to question what next? Currently it appears as if the first steps towards a total Orwellian Internet state in which users of the social networking site are constantly surveyed by the ever-watchful eye of big brother.
So if like this writer you use twitter to berate established political figures, such as Lord Mayors, for their inability to organise a piss up in a brewery, or to simply organise a night of debauchery you better think again because you might just receive a knock at your door.
By Joe Longhurst
