Andre Yoskowitz
14 Nov 2010 17:15
In May, UK citizen Paul Chambers was convicted of sending a 'menacing' tweet via Twitter, with the British Court fining him £2500 and slapping him with a criminal record.
In early January, the airport in South Yorkshire was closed due to excessive snow and Chambers was so mad that he wrote: "Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your s*** together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"
Airport security officials saw the tweet and then passed on the complaint to the local authorities.
Chambers lost his job after being arrested, and was the first person to ever be convicted of a crime just for tweeting.
This week, a judge has refused to overturn the conviction, effectively ending Chamber's appeal.
The judge then yelled at the courtroom as a number of those sitting in the crowd were tweeting updates as the case progressed.
Thousands of Chamber's supporters took to Twitter after the decision, using the "trending topic" #IAmSpartacus to post menacing messages, with some threatening to blow up the White House, Downing Street, "everyone" and all other types of nouns.