Put yourself in the shoes of a 26 year old man, planning to fly from Doncaster to Dublin, to get away from the bad weather in his home county. Then, a week before you are going to fly, you hear word that the same bad weather that has you wanting to leave the country might prevent the flight he so anticipated. If you are anything like me, you would feel annoyance, and not be pleased with the airport; but if you are anything like Paul Chambers, you would go to popular social network site Twitter to express your frustration. "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your s**t together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!" he typed on his iPhone, out of anger towards the airport, but not containing an ounce of will to actually commit a terrorist act against the organization. One public complaint and a week later, he is brought into a 7 hour interrogation, thrown in jail, and the iPhone is confiscated. Now, he is out on bail, and on the day I am writing this is being brought to court for "sending by a public communications network a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character contrary to Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003". Soon enough, we will find out the fate of this unlikely terrorist of the web.
Most blogs I have written so far, I have strongly spoken against brutes, vandals, and unsympathetic people. This, however, is a huge exception. While it was quite stupid to write this message on Twitter, the fact that his justice system is actually taking this as an actual threat is beyond strange. In an age of techology, it is very easy to write a sarcastic comment in the moment, and hit send, but as officials, they should be able to distinguish real threats from angry customers. Would an actual terrorist post that on Twitter if they planned on bombing the airport? Unlikely, so charges and a 7 hour interrogation are way overboard. It is nice to see that these people are entusiastic enough to stop potential threats, but it makes no sense that we would waste our time with disgruntled Tweeters, when the real threats are still getting on flights. Hopefully this man won't actually be charged, and if you want to know more, click on the link here, here, and here.
Most blogs I have written so far, I have strongly spoken against brutes, vandals, and unsympathetic people. This, however, is a huge exception. While it was quite stupid to write this message on Twitter, the fact that his justice system is actually taking this as an actual threat is beyond strange. In an age of techology, it is very easy to write a sarcastic comment in the moment, and hit send, but as officials, they should be able to distinguish real threats from angry customers. Would an actual terrorist post that on Twitter if they planned on bombing the airport? Unlikely, so charges and a 7 hour interrogation are way overboard. It is nice to see that these people are entusiastic enough to stop potential threats, but it makes no sense that we would waste our time with disgruntled Tweeters, when the real threats are still getting on flights. Hopefully this man won't actually be charged, and if you want to know more, click on the link here, here, and here.
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