One of the great things about social media for me is that people are using it more and more as an avenue to vent their frustration and complaints. I’ve personally found it soothing to scream virtual expletives to no-one in particular on a number of occasions (little known fact: I’m impatient). While the validity of results produced by things like CityRailFail is questionable, businesses have sprung up that specialise in the analysis of “brand sentiment” as expressed through social media.

Personally I think it’s all a step in the right direction: if even in a small way, it has given a voice to the traditionally voiceless consumers who have had to put up with the way they are treated by businesses.

Unfortunately, the British Police don’t see it the same way.

A man in the UK has been arrested for tweeting a joke about wanting to blow up an airport when his flight was threatened to be delayed. From TechCrunch Europe:

On January 6 Paul Chambers joked on Twitter “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he wrote. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” He was annoyed that snowfall threatened to delay his plans to travel to Ireland on January 15.

Read the full article here (the funniest part is that the Police showed up to arrest him with a printout of his Twitter page).

Is this an overreaction? Or is it justified? Should you be allowed to joke like this in a public forum like the internet? Or is it time to start censoring your tweets?