Stephen Fry, the British comedian and actor, is a fully-fledged geek. Now, in an interview with the BBC, he has lashed out at a generation of technophobic judges who don’t understand the internet.
Fry was was speaking out about an ongoing legal trial, centered around a joke tweet, that’s currently taking place in the UK. The dispute centres around a joke made on Twitter by Paul Chambers, who announced he was going to bomb an airport through frustration. Now, he faces criminal charges.
In the interview, Fry gets stuck into the English legal system over this topic — but the message is equally transferable to the US. Legal systems throughout the world are led by people who have little, if any, understanding of the digital world which most of us inhabit — and that’s a very real problem. Especially for Paul Chambers. [YouTube]
CraftyNinja
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 9:34 AMAny chance of linking up a transcript of the video? Work Firewalls don’t allow streaming video.
olearymo
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 9:56 AMI also have this problem. It’d be really lovely if Giz could try to include transcripts.
I know it’s not Giz’s problem, and maybe it’s too difficult. But it would be rad for us procras… I mean, readers at work.
MotorMouth
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 9:50 AMI don’t think the problem lies with the law, it lies with the idiots who post this stuff. You wouldn’t say “I’m going to kill my wife if she’s late again” in front of a policeman who had just turned up on your doorstep to investigate a domestic incident report, would you? Sheeple need to understand that when they tweet something, they are removing all context.
I think it is perfectly reasonable for someone to think that if you go to the effort to put something in writing that you are serious about it. I mean, why would you tweet something so banal in the first place? Do you think anyone cares about your life? Its pathetic.
vin
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:13 AMthe problem is that people don’t realise the difference between a normal conversation, and social media. there is a maaassive difference to the scope of the audience.
whilst i am a huuuuuuge fan of Steven Fry (current watching QI season 2), i think he needs to recognise that tweeting something is the same as having a normal conversation… with a megafone… perhaps even nearrr an airport!
mind you, i probably have been in similar situations of frustation :S
it isss becoming a bit taboo, however, and i think people need to recognise that the same rules apply to SN as do to bitching about someone close to you; they just might hear you.
Stew
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:32 PMIt’s a 2-way street, but the onus definitely rests with the police & legal system having to stop knee jerking every time something like this happens & then “making an example” of the fools who do it. Like those 2 UK guys who were detained then sent back after their tweets recently.
Yes it’s stupid to say things like that, but not illegal, and not a terror threat. The guy lost his job over a foolish 30sec act. He won’t be the last to post something stupid on social media. People won’t change, so the police & legal system have to – including wising up to the flippant nature of social media.
What if someone heading away on holidays tweeted about the weather & Bureau of Meteorology “at airport, checked BoM, everything’s set”. Should that person get imprisoned? If I posted something like “I’m going drive home drunk at 500km/h tonight”, I wouldn’t expect the police to launch helicopters & shut down highway.
I completely agree with Stephen Fry.