I'm sure you've heard this one, but in case you haven't a man was convicted of 'sending a menacing electronic communication' and fined after tweeting that he was to blow up an airport.
The 27-year old accountant appealed but his appeal was turned down and now he is taking it all the way to the high court with high-profile human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson.
The challenge will centre on whether or not section 127 of the Communications Act, under which he was convicted, was “appropriately applied”.
“We want to establish what constitutes a menacing communication, what should be the level of intent required for the offence to be committed, and whether or not Paul’s message was sent by means of a public electronic communications network,” said David Allen Green, his solicitor.
The outrage stems from the tweet, “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
Well it was certainly an insensitive tweet but should he have been treated as a criminal and fined for 'menacing communication'? sometimes we just need to take a step back and think about it with a bit of common sense. Is a 27-year old accountant really going to blow up an airport just because it was shut, after planting a big piece of evidence on twitter? Of course not and if there was no intention then there was surely no threat or 'menace'.
What do you think?
Source: BBC news
One thought on “Twitter ‘airport joke’ man to go to high court.”
I support him fully. There was no intent and anyone with a brain can see this, he didn’t do anything wrong. I’m glad he’s challenging it and I hope he wins otherwise it’s another big blow for free speech, common sense and freedom of expression.
What’s more, I suppose we’re also breaking the same ridiculous law by typing or copying and pasting the same words (along with the thousands (?) of other twitter uses who have done the same)
“Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!â€