Twitter users are backing a man convicted and fined for sending a tweet threatening to blow up an airport after he failed to have his conviction overturned. Is the Twitter community right to back Paul Chambers?

Earlier this year, accountant Paul Chambers was convicted for sending a menacing electronic communication when he tweeted: “Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week..otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/nov/22/twitter-joke-trial-paul-chambers-appeal

The Twitter community is angry that a judge at Doncaster Crown Court has refused to quash his conviction. Free speech advocate Index on Censorship said: “The verdict demonstrates that the UK’s legal system has little respect for free expression, and has no understanding of how people communicate in the 21st Century.”

Is the judiciary out of touch with social networks? Should there be tighter controls on views expressed on social networking sites? How should the British legal system adapt to include social networks?

Topics: law, justice, Facebook, social networking, speech, Twitter, freedom, court