It’s pretty common knowledge that you don’t want to joke about bombs or weapons at the airport security checkpoint. Or that it’s a bad idea to phone in a bomb threat, because you’re running late and you want to hold the plane. (It’s happened.) But now we can add another lesson to the list: Don’t make sarcastic jokes about blowing up airports on Twitter.
A fellow named Paul Chambers was frustrated with the heavy snows that closed Doncaster Sheffield Robin Hood Airport (great name). He was getting concerned that the delays would ground his own flight one week later. So he hit Twitter with the following comment:
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!
Dumb? Misguided? Foolish? Clueless? Self-indulgent? All of the above?
No matter what you call it, the British police found it less than charming, and paid Mr. Chambers a visit. He was arrested for making a bomb threat. They confiscated his laptop, phone, and desktop hard drive. And now, he’s been convicted for the lesser (but still serious) charge of section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, for sending an “indecent, obscene or menacing” message. He was not only convicted, harming his career as an accounting, but he had to pay a £385 fine, a £15 “victims’ surcharge,” and another £600 in legal fees. Ouch.
A judge argued that the comment was “of a menacing nature in the context of the times in which we live.” But now, Twitter is full of further menacing messages tagged #twitterjoketrial as a show of solidarity and protest.
I feel bad for the guy. Yes, he was being stupid, “in the context of the times in which we live,” but he wasn’t really threatening anyone. Now, having joked about blowing up an airport, he’s not only a convicted criminal, he’s probably on the no-fly list.
So, is an unfunny joke on Twitter grounds for trial? Is a lame expression of frustration reason for the security apparatus to crack down? Hit the comments!
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May 13th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Twitter Comment
I read about that. Rant today, pay tomorrow I guess. Poor guy.
May 13th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Twitter Comment
What an idiot…
May 14th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Twitter Comment
How to deter terrorists 101. We can’t get the bad guys so we punish what we got.
May 14th, 2010 at 8:21 am
He also lost his job.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Very sad. The terrorists have won.
May 14th, 2010 at 10:46 am
That’s horrible! For a simple joke like that??!!
May 14th, 2010 at 11:43 am
It’s truly a crazy world we live in. A (dumb) guy makes a (dumb) joke on Twitter and get’s arrested, but a (really dumb) state legislature (Georgia), passes an (incredibly dumb) law allowing people to carry handguns in the airport.
If anyone should get arrested and fined in the above scenario wouldn’t you think it was the people that approved hand guns in an airport?
I’m apparently very confused about how we, the flying public, are being kept safe in the above two examples.
May 14th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Twitter Comment
thats 1 of the downfalls of social media, u should b able 2 express ur frustrations without having the police knocking on ur door
May 14th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Twitter Comment
It’s like we tell the kids when we travel – don’t make stupid jokes about bombs. Duh.
May 14th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Twitter Comment
Be careful how you use those 140 characters!
May 14th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
[...] ??????????????How Twitter can put you on the no-fly list?? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????Twitter??????????????????????????????????????????????????????1????????? [...]
May 15th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Come one – weren’t we all taught to keep our thoughts to ourselves. I love the off the cuff comments on Twitter but there is some stuff that needs to be left at home. Write a poem if you are ticked of – just don’t mention bombs and airports
May 15th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
It starts like this. Soon you won’t be able to mention “fat” people without being charged with an offense.
Just like on the street dare you say the words “black, white, muslim” without the fear of being misinterpreted.
Yes, he made a stupid joke. But to be arrested and charged on it? No. Warned, yes.
Otherwise censorship will have us all thinking like clones and would be better to hit the kill switch on humanity then.
Now that I’ve mentioned “hitting a kill switch on humanity” I guess someone’s misinterpreting that and I can expect a knock on the door too.
Good thing I’m not at a Georgia airport or I could be shot by a bystander.
May 16th, 2010 at 12:59 am
It’s not like the UK has a 1st Amendment…
May 16th, 2010 at 9:53 am
As a frequent traveler, my personal rule is not to make possibly misinterpreted cracks about the TSA, security, that kind of thing. I’m already censored, it seems, out of fear of repercussions and that’s tragic. First amendment rights, anyone? I actually had a moment of regret when I let the words “THIS is what my taxes are paying for?!?” slip out of my mouth in front of the guy who was repacking my 3oz bottles in to a different see-through plastic bag because mine was too big — the bag, NOT the bottles.
But there are the sometimes travelers — maybe this guy — who aren’t regularly exposed to the farce that passes for security these days. They’re still blissfully unaware that there’s a “context” for these times. What a rude awakening. And what a travesty. Could the police not have applied “context” to his flip remarks? And the idea that we’re self censoring because we don’t want to piss off the powers that be, well, how awful is that? How totalitarian? How oppressive?
Context or harassment? How about common sense?
May 16th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Be careful what you tweet!
Walls have ears!
May 16th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
As an airline pilot traveling around the world on a regular basis, it seems to me that it is common knowledge not to make these kinds of jokes or empty threats, yet people continue to do so all the time.
Who can tell what is an empty threat and what is real. In my area, a teenage boy sent a text message that he was going to kill someone. He then proceeded to try. He is now under arrest and the poor girl is recovering from a brutal, near death beating.
There are better ways to manage frustrations such as self hypnosis.