Thousands of Twitter users are uniting in a campaign that will go down in social-media history as #IamSpartacus. The Twitter firestorm comes after a U.K. man was convicted of violating British communications law.
Paul Chambers sent an angry tweet in January during a temporary closure at the Robin Hood airport in northern Britain. His frustration led him to tweet a messaging indicating he would be “blowing the airport sky high!!” if it didn’t open within a week.
British officials viewed the tweets as a terrorist threat, arrested Chambers, and found him guilty. He was fined about $1,600, in addition to incurring attorney fees. Chambers appealed the case, but the judge said the tweet was “menacing” and upheld the conviction. That’s when the Twitterverse started protesting.
Illegal Re-Tweets?
Twitter users voiced their opinion about the Chambers conviction by re-tweeting his original message with the hash tag #IamSpartacus. The tweets play off the movie Spartacus, which offers a scene in which slaves identify themselves with the main character as a sacrifice.
Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis, was struck by the unique use of Twitter to protest around the globe. As he sees it, the protest wouldn’t be the same on other social-media sites. On Facebook, for example, members represent themselves with their own published statements.
“With Twitter, with the way it handles re-tweets, you are just echoing what someone says,” Shimmin said. “That creates distance between you and what is said in the tweet. So I am wondering if it is illegal to re-tweet something that itself is illegal.”
Great Stride for Humanity
#IamSpartacus was the hottest topic on Twitter as of Friday afternoon, closely followed by #twitterjoketrial. Chambers’ supporters are screaming about free-speech violations. The campaign even caught the attention of British comedian Stephen Fry, who tweeted a message offering to pay Chambers’ fine.
Shimmin said the…