Another appeal for Twitter bomb threat case
21.11.10
The man convicted and fined for posting a Twitter rant saying he planned to blow up Robin Hood Airport will appeal the decision in the High Court. Paul Chambers, 27, was convicted in May of sending a menacing electronic communication. An appeal this month failed to overturn the conviction, sparking outrage amongst Twitter users.
The accountant, formerly from Doncaster but now living in Belfast, will now be represented by human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson in the High Court. The challenge will centre on whether or not section 127 of the Communications Act, under which he was convicted, was ‘appropriately applied’.
The lawyers regard Mr Chambers' conviction as a test case, as it was the first time that the Communications Act was applied to an offence on a social network. David Allen Green, his solicitor, said: ‘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 [it was only sent to his 600 followers].'
Doncaster Crown Court upheld his original conviction earlier this month, causing a wave of outrage on Twitter, with thousands of supporters retweeting Chambers' message, which read: ‘Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!’
The so-called ‘I'm Spartacus’ campaign was inspired by the famous scene in the 1960s film, when slaves stand up one by one to claim ‘I'm Spartacus’ in order to save their fellow conspirator from detection. Unfortunately in the film the reward for their loyalty is that they are all crucified - including Spartacus. Lets hope Mr Chambers has more luck.
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