[2012] EWHC 2157 (Admin)

A conviction for sending by a public electronic communications network a message of a menacing character contrary to the Communications Act 2003 s.127(1)(a) was quashed where a "threat" sent via Twitter had been intended as a joke and would have been understood as a joke by those reading it. A message which did not create fear or apprehension in those to whom it was communicated, or who might reasonably be expected to see it, fell outside s.127(1)(a), for the simple reason that the message lacked menace.

DC (Lord Judge LCJ, Owen J, Griffith Williams J)

27/07/2012