Twitter Joke Triggers Terror Bust

Quip lands Brit Tweeter in jail on Terrorism Act
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 18, 2010 2:42 AM CST
Updated Jan 18, 2010 4:40 AM CST
Twitter Joke Triggers Terror Bust
British cops didn't find Paul Chamber's Twitter quip so funny.   (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)

A British traveler miffed when snow scuttled his vacation plans was busted after joking to pals on Twitter that he was going to "blow the airport sky high." Paul Chambers, 26, was arrested under the Terrorism Act and interrogated for 7 hours last week. He was finally released on bail, suspended from work and banned from the local Doncaster airport for life. "I would never have thought in a thousand years that this would happen because of a Twitter post," he told the Independent.

"I'm the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine," he added. Cops were tipped off by a member of the public, and they arrived at Chambers' workplace with a print-out of his Twitter post. Chambers said officers had never before heard of Twitter, and insisted they were arresting him because of security fears in "the world we live in." Police deleted Chambers' post, and confiscated his iPhone and computers. He returns to court next month. Similar arrests have reportedly occurred in the US, but this was a first for the UK.
(More Twitter stories.)

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