UPDATED 06:37 EDT / SEPTEMBER 07 2011

Twitter and its Legal, Freedom of Speech Issues

Twitter and the entire social media space for that matter has seen a bit of turmoil recently, to say the least. The first news concerns a  27-year-old man  who was arrested in San Antonio, Texas by the FBI for allegedly making threats against Marissa Mayer , one of Google’s first employees and now VP of local, maps and location services. According to early reports, Gregory Calvin King posted 20,000 threatening messages via Twitter.

“The FBI says there is no apparent connection between Mayer and King, who was arrested in San Antonio, Texas Aug. 19, where he had moved from Virginia. He opted to be taken to San Francisco, where the complaint was filed, for his probable cause and bail hearing, according to the San Antonio Express-News.”

The incident was reported in February, and is a rather alarming one – mainly because it is not the first one of its kind.  King is believed to have cyberstalked the Google exec on daily basis, and is facing up to five years in prison if convicted.

Social media platforms such as Twitter have grown to become a very prominent and even significant means of communications; ones that can have a very big impact even beyond the virtual realm. Another example of that is the case of two Mexican citizens whose  communications via Twitter and Facebook may end up getting them sentenced to 30 years in jail.

Gilberto Martinez Vera and Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola allegedly posted information about drug violence near schools in Veracruz, the largest city of the state it’s named after. There were other witnesses who confirmed the event, but Veracruz governor Javier Duarte from arresting the two over allegations of tourism. He tweeted his plans to do so before the actual arrest happened.

This naturally triggered a massive outcry from both locals and human rights groups as well as from international experts, though the story is still evolving.


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