British Teenager Arrested For Tweet

The seventeen year old boy was arrested after mocking British diver Tom Daley after his disappointing Olympic performance.

LONDON—(AP)—Police say a man has been arrested in connection to Twitter postings directed at British Olympic diver Tom Daley.

Daley's father died of brain cancer a year ago and the 18-year-old Olympian had hoped win a medal "for myself and my dad." But he finished fourth on Monday in the 10-meter synchronized platform with teammate Pete Waterfield.

Afterward, a Twitter user sent him several negative messages, including: "You let your dad down i hope you know that."

Comments

[cw]

Dorset Police said early Tuesday that a 17-year-old man was arrested at a guest house in Weymouth “on suspicion of malicious communications” in relation to Twitter threats made against Daley.

Malicious communications? Who decides that? Ever so enlightened lawyers?

Also, I like how Britons consider 17-year-olds to be men. Might as well throw ’em in jail young!

[cw]

Although I have to write, what did the guy tweet? If it was an actual threat to either damage the swimmer’s property or physically hurt him, then I’d feel differently about the tweeter getting into trouble.

But still, “malicious communications,” what a crock of shit.

[Jarad]

I was actually abreast of this situation while it was happening on twitter. Basically, the kid was being a jerk and said something to the effect of “You disappointed your dad.” The diver in question lost his father a year ago to cancer. The diver then retweeted what the asshole wrote, and the guy started getting copious amounts of hate-tweets (is that a term?) and started mouthing off more. I didn’t see any specific threats but I wasn’t paying that much attention.

[Fist of Etiquette]

In Britain, tweeting messages considered menacing can lead to prosecution.

From every mountainside, let freedom tweet!