Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003: Threat or Menace?

Abstract:     
Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 , once one of the more obscure provisions of the UK cybercrime world, has become notorious in 2012 for being used capriciously to suppress online speech in causes celebre such as the "Twitter joke trial" of Paul Chambers. After a brief survey of recent high profile cases, the article surveys the legislative background to s 127 and suggests a provision designed for post and telecoms in an era of state monopoly services is being misapplied to the many to many private infrastructure of Internet communications.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 6

Keywords: social media, freedom of speech, cybercrime, UK law, twitter, facebook

Accepted Paper Series