Guatemalan fears a tweet will make him a jailbird | KOMO News – Seattle, Washington — FYI
Jean Anleu was so fed up with corruption in his country that he decided to vent on the Internet, sending a 96-character message on the social-networking site Twitter.
That message has now earned him a potential five-year prison sentence and the unfortunate distinction of becoming one of the first people in the world to be arrested for a tweet.
Writing under his Internet alias “jeanfer,” Anleu urged depositors to pull their money from Guatemala’s rural development bank, whose management has been challenged in a political scandal: “First concrete action should be take cash out of Banrural and bankrupt the bank of the corrupt.”
Found by Aric Mackey.
Thats what you get for being a sadass twitter user.
I’m not sure if it’s actually illegal, but promoting a run on a bank is the financial equivalent of yelling fire in a theater.
If he’d have stuck to saying they’re corrupt bastards & untrustworthy, he should’ve been fine.
Let’s see now:
Corrupt banking system in corrupt country.
Complaint about corruption in corrupt country.
Jailed by corrupt government.
Seems foreseeable to me. Brave guy!
actually the guy was setting fire to the bank, not yelling fire. Even a healthy bank can fail on a run by its depositors–much less a corrupt one.
Also, the false sense of security blogging gives is on display here. The guy “knows” he is in a corrupt country but still pokes the beast. Yes, when even “free” governments like USA takes action against criticism, its takes a certain kind of naivitee to think a corrupt government won’t take notice. How many bloggers could be taken down in USA before we started to notice and stifle ourselves? I view myself as pretty mellow, but I’m sure some repuglican scum would mind.
He wasn’t setting fire to the bank. It didn’t burn down, after all. I don’t think many Guatemalans take their banking advice from Twitter. It sounds more like the people in charge were overreacting – as we all know they do and can.
Sad thing is, by the looks of the Cyberbully type bills currently being submitted in congress, by this time next year, the same thing will be happening here.
-that is of course, if we’re even allowed to access the net without a license and
a $1 million dollar liable insurance policy.
-s
Must have broken the law banning the first amendment.
The truth is only punished by Tyrants. The tree of liberty..