Tweet, tweet — Croak
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- New York activist Elliot Madison has been arrested for using Twitter to tweet information about police actions during the recent Pittsburgh G-20 protests.
FBI agents raided his house in Queens and spent sixteen hours searching it, says the Pacific Free Press.
He’s thought to be one of the first people faced with criminal allegations for sending information electronically to protesters about the police, says the story.
Madison, a social worker, is charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime, says TruthDig.
He was tweeting publicly available information about police activities around the G-20 protests, “including information about where police had been ordered to disperse protesters,” says the story, going on:
“While alerting people to public information may not seem to be an arrestable offense, be forewarned: Many people have been arrested for the same ‘crime’– in Iran, that is.”
Madison, his wife and housemates were woken up when Joint Terrorism Task Force agents, “swept into their house, keeping them handcuffed for hours, searching the house and removing computers and other property from everyone in the house,” says TruthDig, adding:
“Madison said the FBI “for 16 hours, proceeded to take everything, from plush toys to kitchen magnets and lots of books … they took Curious George stuffed animals.”
The EFF (Electric Frontier Foundation) has posted Madison’s motion and his lawyer’s supporting declaration.
Attached to the declaration are copies of the search warrant, an inventory of the seized items, and the original criminal complaint.
Stay tuned.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Pacific Free Press – Tweat Bust: Twitter’s First Political Prisoner, October 5, 2009
TruthDig – Watch What You Tweet, October 6, 2009
EFF – Man Arrested for Twittering Goes to Court, EFF Has the Documents, October 5, 2009
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| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Madison_motion_EDNY.pdf | 1.15 MB |
| Madison_Motion_EDNY_ordertoshowcause.pdf | 30.9 KB |
October 9th, 2009 at 11:14 am
It’s hearing about stuff like this that make me want to become a hermit and live off the grid. Then I ask myself, could I really live without the internet, TV, movies, music, video games and all the other brain draining things in my life that feel good but are designed to encourage laziness and complacency. No… no, I can’t. Sigh, I suck.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Free Elliot Madison! Allow twitter for protests in USA, not just Iran! Set your avatar red & black: http://twitterrevolution.us/ #fbifail
October 9th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Has he filed a civil rights complaint with the FBI yet. They may not be helpful at first, but after it gets thrown out of court (and it will) he may be able to press criminal charges against the city or state….. whichever entity issued the warrant.
I believe that the supreme court precedence is that the ONLY way that the speech/communications aren’t protected is if it’s known to be false and meets other criteria. True communications must either censored beforehand (ie gag order or non disclosure agreements) or meet the standards of furthering a criminal conspiracy (that’s a LONG shot given he announced it to the general public) or meet the standards for treason. (Protesters aren’t enemy combatants yet are they?).
You cannot shout fire in a crowded theater (if it’s not on fire), no libel/slander ect…
Happy suing to you sir.
October 9th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I guess that I should add that my background is in engineering, not law, so I could be wrong.
However, if I am, you may be getting a new neighbor Jon because that makes America a little too close to a police state for my tastes.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
fuck twitter. it sucks. and it’s dumb.
and it’s for twits.