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In U.K., Tweet About Blowing Up Airport Leads to Conviction

By Bruce Carton

Via this post on TechCrunch Europe comes the story of the first person in the U.K. arrested for a comment made on Twitter. On Jan. 6, 2010, after a snow storm threatened his plans to travel to Ireland on January 15, Paul Chambers tweeted that "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your sh*t together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" This bit of airport-bomb humor brought the police to Chambers' home a week later. The police showed Chambers a print-out of his Twitter page, advised him that he was being arrested under the Terrorism Act, and took him into custody where he was questioned for seven hours. "I had to explain Twitter to them in its entirety because they'd never heard of it," Chambers said. He was eventually released on bail, but his Twitter post was deleted and his laptop, iPhone and home computer were seized. Today, the fallout from Chambers' Twitter joke grew even worse, as he was found guilty by District Judge Jonathan Bennett of sending a menacing electronic communication contrary to the Communications Act of 2003. Bennett found that Chambers' tweet was ''of a menacing nature in the...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on May 10, 2010 (boomark / email).