The Twitter Judgment: The Law With Unintended Consequences?

Much has been made of the High Court's decision in Chambers v Director of Public Prosecutions [2012] EWHC 2157 that a message posted on Twitter in jest was not to be considered menacing and so a criminal offence under the Communications Act 2003.  Worthy of further attention, however, is the Court's finding that the message was sent over a "public electronic communications network" and the huge extent of its potential application.

1. "The Internet" is a public network

The Court made the ground-breaking finding that the internet itself constitutes a public network.  The reasons for this were two-fold:

1. The internet "is plainly a public electronic communications network provided for the public and paid for by the public through the various service providers we are all familiar with".