1. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Getting into & staying out of trouble on the Net – why joking on
Facebook and Twitter is no laughing matter
Ray Corrigan
Open University
http://b2fxxx.blogspot.co.uk/
@raycorrigan
2. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Stacey Snyder
3. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Witch hunts & mob rule?
4. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Andrew Feldmár
Canadian psychologist
Border guard internet search
5. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Fabrice Muamba & Liam Stacey
6. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Youth police commissioner
Paris Brown
3834 tweets deleted
7. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Twitter joke trial
6 January 2010
@pauljchambers
8. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
“@Crazycolours: I was thinking that if it does then I had decided to
resort to terrorism”
9. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
“@Crazycolours: That’s the plan! I am sure the pilots will be expecting
me to demand a more exotic location than NI”
10. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
“Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get
your shit together otherwise I am blowing the airport sky high!!”
11. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
11 January 2010
12. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Duty manager home
Robin Hood Airport search
13. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Procedure – refer up the chain
14. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Credible threats
MoD
15. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Non-credible threats
Police
16. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Airport police
S Yorks police
17. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
7 days post tweet
Anti-terror squad – workplace
Bomb hoax arrest
18. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
10 February 2010
“no evidence at this stage to suggest that there is anything other than a
foolish comment posted on “Twitter” as a joke for only his close
friends to see.”
19. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
CPS
127 (1)(a) Communications Act 2003
A person is guilty of an offence if he—
sends by means of a public electronic communications network a
message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent,
obscene or menacing character;
20. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Nobody acts as though there's a 'threat'
21. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
No urgency
Self preservation
Tick the box
22. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Magistrate convicts
Crown Court upholds:
"satisfied" that the tweet was "menacing per se" and that "an ordinary
person" seeing it "would see it that way and be alarmed. The airport
staff did see it and were sufficiently concerned to report it."
23. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
"Yah hmm mmm"
“satisfied that the appellant was, at the very least, aware that his message
was of a menacing character."
24. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
High Court
tweeting is sending messages by means of a "public electronic
communications network"
25. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
High Court
s127 ok – update of misuse of phone for menace
No “newly minted interference with.. freedom of speech"
Interpreting s127 “disappointingly little coherence in English law’s
approach to threat offences”
26. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
message which does not create fear or apprehension... lacks menace
No threat, no menace, no actus reus, no criminal conduct
27. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
No attention to simple fact that the tweet lacked any conceivable menace
28. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
message which does not create fear or apprehension... lacks menace
No threat, no menace, no actus reus, no criminal conduct
29. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
High Court para 31 - 34
“In any event, the more one reflects on it, the clearer it becomes that this
message did not represent a terrorist threat, or indeed any other form
of threat..
...It was treated and addressed as if it was not a credible threat... no
action... no minimal.. protective measures... no urgent response...
Police action was not exactly hurried”
“proper respect must be paid” to the Crown Court but...
30. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
“How this ever get this far?! A plethora of officialdom couldn't get their
act together and we are blowing this case sky high!!”
31. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
56 days jail Liam Stacey – Fabrice Muamba
Racially Aggravated s4A Public order Act 1986
@rileyy_69 (aka Reece of Weymouth) – Tom Daley
s1 1988 Malicious Communications Act
“an indecent, grossly offensive, threatening, or false message with the
intent of causing stress or anxiety”
s5 Public Order Act 1986
Harassment, alarm or distress... threatening, abusive or insulting
32. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
>4000 new criminal offences introduced by UK government 1997 – 2010
Twice the rate of their immediate predecessors
Stats for Con-Dem coalition not clear yet
33. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Edward Snowden
Whistleblower
Traitor or hero?
34. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
US government response
Don’t look behind the curtain, there’s nothing to see
Balance
http://b2fxxx.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/obamas-initial-reaction-to-prism-leak.html
35. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
UK Government response
We’re doing nothing wrong
D-notice the media - advise not to publish for national security reasons
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
36. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
2 Key revelations –
Documentary evidence of mass surveillance
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order
James Clapper: PRISM is about FISAAA
“The Guardian and The Washington Post articles refer to ... Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act
They contain numerous inaccuracies. Section 702 ...designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign
intelligence information concerning non-US persons located outside the United States...only non-US
persons outside the US are targeted... minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally
acquired information about US Persons.”
37. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Turing 1942 Ellis Island
5 eyes UK, US, NZ, Ca, Au
38. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Timeline
1952 President Truman sets up NSA
1972 US Supreme Court – warrants needed for domestic surveillance (the Keith case)
1970s Watergate
1975 Church Committee
1978 FISA
2001 – 2007 President Bush warrantless wiretapping
2003 AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein – NSA secret room San Francisco
2004 NYT report NSA domestic spying
2007 Protect America Act
2008 FISAAA (renewed 2013) Challenged by ACLU 2008 (argued Scotus 2012)
2013 Snowden PRISM leaks
39. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
EU personal data is unprotected from FISAAA
EU Commission, DPAs, Member States, MEPs, didn't know
about FISAAA 1881a until 2012
40. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Bad news…
Internet a surveillance state
Unrestrained data collection & processing
&
Laws on the statute books
mean
Using the Net opens you up to trouble
41. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Good news…
You’re mostly lost in the noise
Everyone is subject to mass surveillance on the Net
Anyone’s data can be mined
Everyone’s can’t
Don’t become a person of interest…
42. 21 June 2012 OU Alumni 2013
Foxcombe Hall, Oxford
Editor's Notes
25 year old single mother. MySpace page. Caption “drunken pirate”. Supervisor warned “unprofessional”. Millersville University School of Education denied her a degree days before due to graduate for promoting drinking to underage kids. Behaviour unbecoming of a teacher. Sued the university unsuccessfully.
Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, Mr Justice Owen, Mr Justice Griffith Williams
Nevertheless as long ago as the Post Office (Amendment Act) 1935, s.10(2)(a) introduced a prohibition against the misuse of the telephone to communicate indecent, obscene or menacing messages