Slashdot Mirror
Guatemalan Twitter User Arrested For "Inciting Panic"
talishte points out (with a snippet from BoingBoing) that "Amid protests in the streets and on social networks calling for
Guatemala's president to step down after the assassination of a
whistleblower attorney, Guatemalan police have arrested a Twitter user
for 'inciting
panic' through tweets. In the capital city today, police
raided his home and confiscated his computer."
Calling a suggested boycott of a bank inciting a panic is so stupid it'd be funny if the poor guy wasn't actually arrested for it. A bank panic is when people run to withdraw funds because someone told them their money was unsafe in that bank. Suggesting a boycott on ethical grounds does not even remotely relate to causing a panic.
He suggested breaking the bank. He did not say the bank was going broke. Anyone who called this a bank panic must have assumed that everyone who reads a sentence or two on Twitter will immediately do whatever they are told.
In that case, hopefully those people who think it's necessary to do whatever suggestions they read (like the officials who brought this trumped-up charge) are also reading Slashdot. I suggest that anyone calling this causing a bank panic go swimming in a piranha-infested river while tied to an anvil.
is not inciting a panic, even if everyone panics. You can get charged for shouting "fire" if there is no fire. If there really is a fire, you should not be charged even if there is a stampede and someone gets crushed.
On the other hand, if the government has already killed 2 people, one quite obviously because of what he was saying, I wouldn't be doing anything that might land me in jail.
That's a good way to "accidentally" shoot yourself in the back, jump off your cell's balcony, shoot yourself again with a different gun, and then trip into a wood chipper.
I could be sued, but not criminally charged. Of course, anybody can sue anyone for anything. AIG couldn't win because I'm merely expressing my own personal opinion. BofA because it's obviously a humorous message. In fact, Berke Breathed published a very similar statement in millions of newspapers and books in the '80s. Even if I sent out a more serious message, I would still be merely expressing an opinion and belief.
That doesn't mean that with their well funded army of lawyers compared to my lucky if I don't have to appear pro se they couldn't effectively buy a ruling, but that's another issue.