According to reports, a man and a woman in Mexico face possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage because of their false tweets. Spreading the rumor that gunmen were attacking schools in Veracruz and kidnapping children, with the results being likened to the Orson Welles’s 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds.
“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,” said Gerardo Buganza, the interior secretary for Veracruz.
Both are pleading not guilty and Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola claims that the rumors already existed on the internet, saying, “How can they possibly do this to me, for retweeting a message I mean, it’s 140 characters. It’s not logical.”
Source: AP
