Tory councillor arrested over Twitter stoning post

[Vintage Paw]

[Double posting cunt.]

 

[kyser_soze]

Just to clarify - I think this is a shit verdict, and it was a shit, sneaky way of prosecuting him, but as with those people who lost their jobs for slagging off their employers on Facebook who had their privacy settings set badly, take care when posting online.

 

[temper_tantrum]

take care when posting online.

Thing is, it's very easy to say 'take care online' retrospectively. How could you possibly imagine that Tweeting about your frustration about an airport being snowed in would in any way be considered as a serious threat to anything? I mean, if it was something which it occurred to you could be misinterpreted, you would already have taken care. No?
The real problem is that the majority of people involved in the legal system don't understand what Twitter is or how it works, and have therefore misunderstood what such a Tweet signifies - ie. not accepting that it is the equivalent of expressing your frustration to your mates down the pub, not sending an anonymous coded bomb message to a newspaper.

Edit: And it's nothing like slagging off your employer

 

[likesfish]

both case the threats were hardly realistic
the twat in nottigham had no access to explosives a couple of hours in the cell to rethink making stupid comment on public comms about right.

tory councillors hardly control angry mobs.

 

[two sheds]

I think he should be stoned to death for what he did.

*struggles with TopCat to make a citizens' arrest*

 

[fogbat]

tory councillors hardly control angry mobs.

They incite them.

 

[kyser_soze]

Originally Posted by kyser_soze
take care when posting online.
Thing is, it's very easy to say 'take care online' retrospectively. How could you possibly imagine that Tweeting about your frustration about an airport being snowed in would in any way be considered as a serious threat to anything? I mean, if it was something which it occurred to you could be misinterpreted, you would already have taken care. No?
The real problem is that the majority of people involved in the legal system don't understand what Twitter is or how it works, and have therefore misunderstood what such a Tweet signifies - ie. not accepting that it is the equivalent of expressing your frustration to your mates down the pub, not sending an anonymous coded bomb message to a newspaper.

Because I have an understanding of how twitter works, I wouldn't say something like that on it full stop. As I said, I don't agree with this verdict. And no, I know it's not equivalant of slagging your employer off online, but the lack of thinking about the privacy aspect does have similarities.

 

[temper_tantrum]

Bully for you.

 

[trevhagl]

I think he's doing it pro-bono, isn't he? He's written a couple of good articles about it, anyway.

oh well if he's a U2 fan he fucking DESERVES it

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Stone all the Tories, including stoatface.

 

[BlackArab]

Stone all the Tories, including stoatface.

I used to get stoned with a Tory, does that help?

 

[likesfish]

They incite them.

to angry mutterings and possilby a mad rant to a local newspaper
oh sorry they incite mad mobs to hunt them down well at least in the dreams of urbanites

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

I think he should be arrested for being a Tory.

 

[teuchter]

I look forward to multiplicitous arrests of urban75 posters for incitement to murder over the coming few days.

Or is posting something on here in some way different to posting something on twitter?

 

[two sheds]

I look forward to multiplicitous arrests of urban75 posters for incitement to murder over the coming few days.

That looks suspiciously like incitement to incitement to murder to me

 

[teuchter]

That looks suspiciously like incitement to incitement to murder to me

Incitement to arrest.

 

[moon23]

Being arrested over a joke is no joke... the man is an idiot but he shouldn't have been arrested.

 

[Vintage Paw]

#iamspartacus is trending on twitter. People are tweeting Paul Chambers' original tweet in solidarity. In related news, his solicitor has said they have a top human rights and free speech QC instructing on taking the case to the High Court.

 

[teuchter]

Question from a nontwitterer...what exactly does "trending" mean?

 

[TopCat]

I look forward to multiplicitous arrests of urban75 posters for incitement to murder over the coming few days.

Or is posting something on here in some way different to posting something on twitter?

Very

 

[moon23]

There is a very good piece here about twitter and terroism. Reading the articule it does strike me that probably about 5% of posts on urban would fall foul of the 2003 Communication Act. How very silly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/nov/11/2

 

[fractionMan]

The man's a prick, no doubt, but an arrest for a throwaway comment on Twitter's a bit much.

I'm reminded of the ridiculous case against Paul Chambers

This. Sets a worrying precedent.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Question from a nontwitterer...what exactly does "trending" mean?

You can tag tweets with a 'hashtag', which allows people to search that phrase and pull up all tweets that have been made using that tag. In this case people are using #iamspartacus and #twitterjoketrial when they talk about the Chambers case. Twitter collects information about which of these tags is popular at any given time, and updates a list of the top 10, which are called 'trending topics'. Top 1 and 2 of the UK trending topics at the moment are #twitterjoketrial and #iamspartacus.

You can change the way you filter trends, deciding just to show what's trending in the UK, a few other countries, or worldwide. If you make the trending topics worldwide the internet explodes I've just checked, and #iamspartacus is at #2 worldwide now. But then America isn't awake yet.

Trending topics (TTs) can be very useful when coordinating events. During Wednesday's protest the official tag was #demo2010. People were able to search that tag and keep up to date with what was going on at Millbank, along with other news. It also provides a way for news outlets to monitor situations and harvest it for news reports. That's a grey area really, the extent to which twitter users are providing journalists with their content, but on the plus side it helps them get quick reports about things as the just start happening.

A good example of good use of a TT was during the Iran protests. I don't remember what the hashtag was for that (there were likely several), but it meant that people around the world were able to quickly find reports from those in Iran that wouldn't have made it through official news channels. Of course, all of this should be used with the same awareness of critically appraising your sources as would using Wikipedia for reference, etc.

 

[marty21]

#iamspartacus is trending on twitter. People are tweeting Paul Chambers' original tweet in solidarity. In related news, his solicitor has said they have a top human rights and free speech QC instructing on taking the case to the High Court.

Imagine if they fined every one who had tweeted that tweet, £1000 a go, tens of thousands doing it - government rakes it in - no more cuts

I have tweeted *that* tweet btw

 

[teuchter]

Very

How so?

 

[Orang Utan]

anyone up for increasingly threatening claims on twitter until one of us gets arrested? just to test the waters. someone could run a book.
'i'm gonna go round my neighbour and kick his liver out and no-one's going to stop me'
'i've just emptied an oil tanker full of liquid acid into a reservoir'
'i'm going to firebomb a fash pub with some safety matches cos i'm hard'
etc etc

 

[Vintage Paw]

Imagine if they fined every one who had tweeted that tweet, £1000 a go, tens of thousands doing it - government rakes it in - no more cuts

I have tweeted *that* tweet btw

Indeed.

As have I.

#wearespartacus

 

[Vintage Paw]

anyone up for increasingly threatening claims on twitter until one of us gets arrested? just to test the waters. someone could run a book.
'i'm gonna go round my neighbour and kick his liver out and no-one's going to stop me'
'i've just emptied an oil tanker full of liquid acid into a reservoir'
'i'm going to firebomb a fash pub with some safety matches cos i'm hard'
etc etc

People are already doing it. Twitter has never been a more menacing place than these past 2 days

 

[Vintage Paw]

Although, tbh, I'm pretty menacing on there all the fucking time.

 

[marty21]

Although, tbh, I'm pretty menacing on there all the fucking time.