Twitter Rant Over Closed Airport Leads to Conviction
A British man training as an accountant has discovered the downside of Twitter.
On Monday, Paul Chambers became the first man in the United Kingdom convicted for sending a menacing electronic communication on Twitter, according to the DailyRecord.co.uk, the Financial Times and True/Slant.
Chambers, 26, was planning to visit his girlfriend in Ireland in mid-January, and he expressed frustration when a snowstorm closed the airport in Doncaster, England, a week before his scheduled flight.
“Robin Hood Airport is closed,” he tweeted. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s**t together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
Chambers was convicted for the missive under a 2003 British law that makes it a crime to send “indecent, obscene or menacing” messages over a public electronic communications network.
Lawyer Danvers Baillieu of Winston & Strawn told the Financial Times that the ruling appeared to be an “overreaction” that was “very worrying” for free speech.
