Blown Sky High

Back in the day (when I were a lad), I used to post on internet forums – merrily chatting away on topics close to my heart back then.

And then I went and said something stupid; I can’t really recall exactly what I posted, but it offended someone/some people, and I got reprimanded by the moderators.

The thing is, I hadn’t meant to actually offend those people that read my post – I was simply posting in the not-quite-real-world of the internet. Some of the anonymity that the web had afforded me, had allowed me to open up my feelings and thoughts – and express ideas that I had never felt comfortable expressing before.

And being reprimanded by the moderators really annoyed me.

I hadn’t said the things that I said to that person’s face – I hadn’t forced them to accept my opinion using threats of real violence – all that my internet alter-ego had done was to post his controversial opinion, for other internet alter-egos to read and comment on.

Despite trying to explain the context of my remarks to the moderators, they still struggled to see my point of view. And so I came to the significant understanding of how text can be misunderstood over the internet.

Shortly after this, I put together a disclaimer which made it clear to anyone reading my posts that I didn’t actually mean actual distress to them – I was merely posting my opinions in the interest of having a lively discussion about every single thing that crossed my inquisitive teenage mind at the time.



It’s a disclaimer I still carry today, in some form – because I want people to be aware that everything on here is my opinion – a stream of consciousness thought – it is not a threat to your good self; unless you find the idea of having your own views challenged, a legitimate act of war upon you.

Going further from that – everything I say and do in real life is also my opinion, not a statement of fact that threatens your very worldview.

But the reason I’m posting this today, is because of the farcical events of the Twitter Joke Trial, which have resulted in an innocent man losing his job (and then a 2nd that he applied for after his conviction), and – more fundamentally – is an apparent attack on our individual rights to expression.

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For those of you not following these events, it all started out with a – perhaps misjudged – but clearly-flippant remark by Paul Chambers on twitter:

Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!

Here’s the key reaction points to this:

1. This tweet by Paul to his followers (amongst them @crazycolours whom he was looking to date at the time – and to get to her, he was going to fly from Doncaster airport*), was picked up by an off-duty member of said airport, by searching for the phrase ‘Robin Hood airport’ in the public twitter streams (what you post on twitter is publicly searchable by default – had Paul been serious in his threat, he would have taken the steps to STOP it being publicly viewable, or – maybe! – not posted about it on a public blogging site at all)
2. The off-duty member of staff reported the tweet to the police, as a matter of procedure – and the police stated that this wasn’t a serious threat, and that there was – I quote! – “”no evidence that this was other than a foolish joke”
3. As pointed out more recently on twitter – why would terrorists blow up a closed airport anyway?! Another poster even did some detailed analysis of the joke tweet

Despite these key points, the Crown Prosecution Service went ahead with sentencing Paul Chambers to a criminal record, and fines that – currently – lie between two and three thousand pounds [an amount that has already been covered by donations from the public; although Stephen Fry has also offered to pay for the full amount].

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It was frankly rather disheartening that Paul’s appeal to this conviction was quashed yesterday – and brought back memories of the forum moderators censoring my comments, just because I said something that someone took issue with.

Having my comments on a forum wiped, and having my wrist slapped is one thing – but when the same principle gets blown out of proportion, and a man (and his now girlfriend) have their lives ruined because he expressed comical outrage about being unable to meet the woman he loves – it actually scares me about the nature of the society I am living in.

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Which is what made it all the more heartening when, after picking up on a trend at around 11am today, I took part in the mass-reposting of Paul Chamber’s original tweet – under the banner of #IAmSpartacus

First hundreds – then thousands of us all posting the exact same words that Paul Chambers had back in February, that caused the CPS to bring about this woeful action – many of us also expressing the fear that there might also be a knock at the door from the police, asking us to accompany them to the station. [As an aside - out of interest - how did the police reconcile Paul’s original tweet with the human being known as Paul Chambers, and link the two?]

But the overall point of the posting – as well as expressing a protestation about the sorry state of affairs – is that, either the CPS commit to their line of prosecution and arrest all of us who posted the tweet again (for which I would be more than happy to stand trial) – or they too will have to admit that their line of approach is indeed a sham, as the rest of us can plainly see.

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* Incidentally, I refuse to affiliate Doncaster’s airport with the famous Nottinghamshire-based outlaw – for that they really do deserve to be bombed! LOL ONLY JOKING… ¬_¬