Via Sphere: (Jan. 18) – A word of advice to frustrated fliers: Watch what you tweet. British air traveler Paul Chambers was arrested under the United Kingdom’s Terrorism Act over a Twitter post he wrote referring to northern England’s Robin Hood Airport, which was closed due to snow.
“You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s*** together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” Chambers wrote on Jan. 7, a week before his own planned flight to Ireland.
Chambers said it was just a joke — but in 140 characters or less, he piqued the interest of police, who showed up at his job a week later with a printout of his tweet. Acting on a tip from a social-media-savvy member of the public, officers questioned him for seven hours and arrested him over an alleged security threat.
“I would never have thought, in a thousand years, that any of this would have happened because of a Twitter post,” Chambers told Britain’s Independent newspaper.
After being released on bail, Chambers, 26, was suspended from his job and banned for life from the Robin Hood Airport, which is outside of Doncaster in Yorkshire. His computers and iPod were confiscated. He said the police officers who interrogated him did not understand Twitter — or his misguided humor.
He faces a charge of conspiring to create a bomb hoax, a charge he flatly denies. “I’m the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine,” he said.
Chambers is now believed to hold a dubious honor: first person in Britain to be arrested over a tweet.
There have been Twitter-related arrests in the U.S., where there are more than 6 million users of the social-networking site. Two men were arrested last October for tweeting police locations during the G-20 conference in Pittsburgh. The incident sparked debate over First Amendment rights: Does freedom of speech translate to freedom of tweet?
Chambers’ arrest inspired a Twitter trending topic, #freedomoftweet, allowing his supporters to air their frustrations.
Just don’t attempt to “follow” Chambers’ on Twitter. His page is now blocked from public view.
