| Title | Fake Mayor Twitter Account Leads to Police Raid | |
| Date | Thursday April 17 2014, @04:32PM | |
| Author | LaminatorX | |
| Topic | ||
| from the I-Miss-Fake-Steve-Jobs dept. | ||
Police in Peoria, IL raided the home of a 27 year-old resident who set up a parody Twitter account for the Peoria mayor. The raid did not result in any arrests, but computers and phones were seized and the residents questioned. The police are investigating the account for breaking a law forbidding "impersonating a public official". If the case moves forward, the alleged owner of the account, Michelle Pratt, could face a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail.
Even if it is eventually dropped, this could have a chilling effect on satirical political speech and seems like a massive overstep by a local police force to save face for an elected official.
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printed from SoylentNews, Fake Mayor Twitter Account Leads to Police Raid on 2024-07-27 07:21:43