Do We Really Want To Criminalize Bad Jokes?
Found on Techdirt on Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Back in January, we wrote about the story of a guy in the UK who was arrested and banned from his local airport after making a (bad) joke on Twitter about blowing the place up.
Andrew sent over a few more articles about the story, that highlight that the guy wasn't actually charged for making a fake bomb threat.
Instead, it appears that the police used a little-known part of the UK's Communications Act that outlaws sending a "message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character."
He was charged with making a bad joke, that someone misinterpreted as being "menacing."
The police and court blew this sky high. Now I bet someone will consider this joke about a joke grossly offensive. There's not much to add to such a retarted stunt by the officials though.