Twitter joke led to Terror Act arrest and airport life ban

Twitter joke led to Terror Act arrest and airport life ban

www.independent.co.uk

When heavy snowfall threatened to scupper Paul Chambers's travel plans, he decided to vent his frustrations on Twitter by tapping out a comment to amuse his friends. "Robin Hood airport is closed," he wrote. "You've got a week and a bit to get your # together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"

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[edit on 1/18/2010 by semperfortis]

Not sure what to say about Mr Chambers... surely everyone knows jokes are for behind closed doors nowadays for fear of a) Offending someone or b) Sticking your rather large foot in your mouth.. WHY anyone would joke about something that could clearly be flagged up as antagonistic or terrorist is beyond me... especially in light of the old chap last week who was hauled of a plane for 'joking' that he had a bomb...

But then the other part of me thinks WHO reported him? Or is someone paid to scan twitter for mentions of blowing up!?

Unfortunately for Mr Chambers, the police didn't see the funny side. A week after posting the message on the social networking site, he was arrested under the Terrorism Act and questioned for almost seven hours by detectives who interpreted his post as a security threat. After he was released on bail, he was suspended from work pending an internal investigation, and has, he says, been banned from the Doncaster airport for life. "I would never have thought, in a thousand years, that any of this would have happened because of a Twitter post," said Mr Chambers, 26. "I'm the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine."

Yuh.. and your joke... it wasn't even funny!


[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/twitter-joke-led-to-terror-act-arrest-and-airport-life-ban-1870913.html]www.independent.co.uk[/url ]
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 18-1-2010 by yzzyUK]

Sorry I 'think' I may have posted this in the wrong section...

It was not a funny joke at all but thats all it was.
Everyones too touchy these days about anything and everything.
Police should use there common sense and see he was having a joke on twitter.

If wonder who reported him a twitter friend or just a agency looking for these types of messages.

Lack of common sense ruins fun and freedoms.

ridiculous
how did the airport get that tweet though?

did they intercept it?'

it's interesting to see who pushed twitter the most
it was the media and celebrities
that's why i would never use it


EDIT to add: I don't think any of us can say the joke wasn't funny, we weren't one of the recipients.

[edit on 18-1-2010 by ModernAcademia]

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Maybe they have keywords check ups if a certain word is said in the same sentence with another a report is flagged or soemthing.

Dont they use this method to monitor texts ?

whos knows ....

I guess your right about the joke, but the jokes on him now
I would take being banned from crummy doncaster airport as a good thing :lol

The article says a member of the public reported him. So I am thinking one of his followers rather than an agency sweeping Twitter...

Mind you I have just searched on twitter and found two people wanting to bl*w up airports so erm... yeah... lol

Some people do just say pants things, I have a friend who thinks it is hillarious every time we go shopping to hand over money and say "OOps, hang on... is it dry yet? Only printed that today" or to look at his credit card and say "OOhh forgot I had his card!"

It doesn't make me or the staff laugh so I'm not sure if he just has a mad "must fill this gap" moment where he says what has now beome habitual or if he enjoys winding me up lol ... One day I am expecting him to have his card held back by the cashier! MEH!

Another stupid knee jerk reaction to something that is clearly someones attempt at humour to vent his frustration. any idiot can see that it was a joke coz if it wasnt then why did he say he was going to blow up the airport for all to see days before he was going to do it..JHFC dosent anyone have any common sense at all.......

reply to post by yzzyUK


Your friend sounds great, i tend to say things i shouldnt like that its just fun.
I wonder how many of us would actually would of reported that, i would guess not many.

Nanny UK all over...
I would not of reported him

reply to post by yzzyUK


im sorry, but just to pick up on one thing without starting an arguement, you cant say "jokes are for behind closed doors" in case someone doesnt agree with what you said, im not saying make necrophillia jokes at a funeral, but if i make a joke about terrorism or AGW or some other vague thing people are scared of for no reason im not asking people to approve what i said, havent these people ever heard of tongue-in-cheek humour?

btw since when did terrorists use twitter to let people know when they're gonna be blowing stuff up, or is that just the new age version of the bad guy from bond telling him his entire plan before he kills him?

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
ridiculous
how did the airport get that tweet though?

did they intercept it?'

it's interesting to see who pushed twitter the most
it was the media and celebrities
that's why i would never use it


EDIT to add: I don't think any of us can say the joke wasn't funny, we weren't one of the recipients.

[edit on 18-1-2010 by ModernAcademia]

Exactly. There was such a deal made over MySpace, Twitter, and Face Book. Now we are seeing why there was such a big deal made. What a perfect way to get people to tell you what they are planning on doing or even “read” their thoughts.

Sure they can see our thoughts here as well but we are not using our real names either. In fact the only information I remember providing this site was an email. At the same time I have been a member here for several years and was a lurker long before that. I still don’t post as much as I read because posting puts my thoughts out there for others to read.

I believe though he was caught because of a keywords search that is conducted by TPTB. I imagine they have an army of people that do nothing but monitor “keywords” across the internet and flag any potential threats. In this case as with much of ATS I would assume many of us are deemed as flagable and are on some sort of watch list, at the very least sites such as this are monitored for traffic and keywords.

Raist

well that will teach him for getting lippy, thats the UK all over. jokeing on twitter is not the same as jokeing on a plane, unless hes known to be an unstable loonatic or works with the materials to acctualy carry it out the guy should be compensated for his 7 hours. how far will the establishment go to put the peasants in there place it all seems abit totaliterian to me. what ever happend to freedom of speech i just see more and more your not allowed to say n do

@yzzyUK your friends joke is funny even more so if the cashier checks the note or the card(like anyone would admit that in the stuation :lol

Originally posted by Raist


Exactly. There was such a deal made over MySpace, Twitter, and Face Book. Now we are seeing why there was such a big deal made. What a perfect way to get people to tell you what they are planning on doing or even “read” their thoughts.

Right on the button Raist,I have thought that from Day1 of the whole Facebook craze,pushed on the masses through a concerted media campaign IMO.
Before that I thought the same about "Friends Reunited."Which it turned out was being monitored by the cops,who used it to bust people who incriminated themselves on the site.

Great idea for the cops/authorities,make a website "cool" with a media campaign,then use it as an intel resource to bust people who make jokes or other "illegal" references...
Also great for the database state-the government does not have to update the database as to your connections or movements-because you happily do it yourself for them.

This is stupid. What about movie makers who create plots about terrorists blowing up "said" city, or storylines involving nuclear weapons/bioterrorism. Are directors such as Cameron/Spielberg also exempt to these communist laws now imposed on Twitter?

I think this is appalling.. the over react by the nanny state is getting beyond beleif..

In my life I missed a train bomb, a tube bomb, a hotel bomb and a couple of car bombs by mere moments.. none of which I let rule my life (tho I do walk very quickly quickly through Victoria station now) nor do I let it define who I am or how I judge people.

From my life experience there is more chance I will be blown up by a terrorist event at a railway station, on a train/tube or walking down the streets than on a plane.

For me this is all about control, break our spirit and make us fearful of the things we say, or the things others say aloud.. what a scary society we live in..

It's good to see how paranoid big brother is, but only so we can all be more aware. Knowing they will go bats#$t over something like this is good.
I don't tweet and I don't know all the details about twitter , but I understand what happened.
OP, you said you just checked tweeter and found two others writing jokes about the same?
If you can search twitter and find others who have written that then it wasn't necesarily a friend of his receiving the tweet ,or the twit as I think I'll now call it, that turned him in. It could have been anyone searching it like you just did.

Big brother is as mad across the pond as he is here

Originally posted by Aceofclubs


@yzzyUK your friends joke is funny even more so if the cashier checks the note or the card(like anyone would admit that in the stuation :lol

Ahh no I do apologise.. I meant I didn't find it funny as it has been 'cracked' at least twice a week now since 1990 .... I'm sure the first few times he said I would have laughed..

It's like my Mothers joke when she tells people I was a child model... when they ask what for she says "Nappy rash!" and laughs herself wet... The joke is now 35 years old!

Oiy!! Stop laughing!

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


I have made a strict vow to not use the sites like MySpace, Face Book, or Twitter simply because of those reasons. If people from my past want to find/contact me there are others ways to go about it. This is why I believe some parts of searching for people will never be out dated. There will always be people out there who are against being “connected” to the rest of the world.

I am connected enough to the world I don’t need everyone and their brother reading my every thought and connecting it back to me. I have even been asked when it pertains to a job search if I have such an account on those sites. Scary how the world wants to view our every thought.

Raist

See this thread to see links between Facebook and the CIA
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Also

Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.
www.wired.com...

also

Could Twitter become terrorists’ newest killer app? A draft Army intelligence report, making its way through spy circles, thinks the miniature messaging software could be used as an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks.

Read More www.wired.com...

Imagine life in a few years, life will be completely different very soon!

reply to post by Raist


"Scary how the world wants to view our every thought."

Indeed, Raist.

It's insane too. I don't know why they are like that.


[edit on 18-1-2010 by dragonsmusic]