Prosecutors in Mexico are seeking to charge two Twitter users with terrorism and sabotage for falsely reporting an armed attack by gangs at schools in Veracruz state, say media reports.
Schoolteacher Gilberto Martinez Vera and radio host Maria de Jesus Bravo both face up to 30 years in prison if convicted, reported Reuters.
“They took five children, an armed group,” Martinez tweeted on Aug. 25, according to the news agency. Bravo posted a similar message in her Twitter account.
The messages then spread quickly via the social networking site after a local resident near a school saw a burning car and linked it with the alleged attack. The messages then spawned a police crackdown and car crashes.
Gerardo Buganza, the interior minister for Veracruz, compared the incident to Orson Welles’ 1938 radio show “The War of the Worlds,” which details the fictional alien invasion of the U.S., according to The Associated Press. He added that the radio program “was small compared to what happened here” in Veracruz.
“Here, there were 26 car accidents, or people left their cars in the middle of the streets to run and pick up their children, because they thought these things were occurring at their kids’ schools,” he added.
Mexican Twitter Users Charged With Terrorism
Prosecutors in Mexico are seeking to charge two Twitter users with terrorism and sabotage for falsely reporting an armed attack by gangs at schools in Veracruz state, say media reports.
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