We read:
"Think before you tweet. A former teacher turned radio commentator and a math tutor who lives with his mother sit in a prison in southern Mexico, facing possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage in what may be the most serious charges ever brought against anyone using a Twitter social network account.
Prosecutors say the defendants helped cause a chaos of car crashes and panic as parents in the Gulf Coast city of Veracruz rushed to save their children because of false reports that gunmen were attacking schools.
Gerardo Buganza, interior secretary for Veracruz state, compared the panic to that caused by Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." But he said the fear roused by that account of a Martian invasion of New Jersey "was small compared to what happened here."
In violence-wracked cities in the northern state of Tamaulipas, citizens and even authorities have used Twitter and Facebook to warn one another about shootouts.
But the real problem appears to be that governments cannot prevent drug cartel violence or even accurately inform citizens about it. Local news media are often so battered by kidnappings and killings of reporters that, in many states, they are loath to report about it.
Source
I can't say I blame the Mexican authorities for taking a dim view of this. False alarms can be very destructive and people should check the truth of what they say. I don't believe in free speech for lies. The proposed penalties in this case however seem excessive.
3 comments:
Excessive? Perhaps, but when you consider the chaos their little prank could have/did cause, the punishment is fitting, if for no other reason than to set an example. Yes, i understand that Mexico is a wild and totally lawless country, but doing nothing is far worse than the harsh sentences.
IMO, all the people who have become addicted to these so-called social media sites, simply for attention, and without ever thinking of the possible consequences, should spend some time in prison. It's a good place to break most addictions.
I suspect that he will be left twisting in the wind, facing the potential 30 year sentence, for a good while. Come the actual conviction, the sentence will then quietly be set at something lesser but still significant - 5 years? - as a deterrent to others.
It's an old trick, and an effective one. No guarantee that's what's happening here, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least.
Twitter. It's the new crack.
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