Caveat twitor
Maybe it's because so much of our work ends up in the public domain, but here at HEXUS we've always erred on the side of caution when it comes to publishing our thoughts on Twitter. We seem to be in a minority, however, as shown by a couple of cases arising from careless tweets that have got a lot of attention today.
Back in May, @pauljchambers sent a frivolous tweet upon finding the airport he was intending to fly from was closed: ''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!'' A bit tasteless, maybe, but we doubt he thought he was committing a criminal offence when he wrote it.
But a Doncaster magistrate found him guilty of sending a ‘menacing' message, fined him a grand, and gave him a criminal record. He appealed the ruling and at the hearing today every aspect of his appeal was rejected and he was stung for a further two grand for his troubles. The verdict was announced over Twitter by his lawyer. The hashtag #twitterjoketrial has gone mental.
Coincidentally, on the same day, Tory councillor @GarethFCompton was so incensed by the performance of journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the radio that he reportedly tweeted: "Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really," We say reportedly, because Compton seems to have completely shut down his Twitter presence.
Alibhai-Brown considered Compton's tweet to be an incitement to murder and went to the police. Compton has now been arrested and suspended from the Conservative party.
Both of these offending tweets look like flippant comments made in poor taste, of the kind people make to each other in conversation all the time. The difference is that Twitter is effectively a broadcast system, and anything you say on it is a public proclamation and a potential incitement to action.
Comedians have rallied to Chambers' cause, with Stephen Fry offering to pay his fine and Graham Linehan calling him to cheer him up. Their issue is that if you can't say something flippant without fear of arrest, their profession and free speech in general are under threat. None of them seem to have stood up for Compton yet, however. Perhaps he crossed some arbitrary line.
You have to wonder if an acknowledged comedian would be arrested for tweeting the same things, and if so whether they would have been arrested for saying them on a show like Mock the Week. The law is clearly being made up on the hoof over ‘menacing' statements on Twitter and, until some clear legal parameters are laid down, we can expect to see more such arrests.
