Parents picking up their children early from schools, car jams and accidents along with panic spread through the port of Veracruz. Prosecutors say the defendants caused a chaos of car crashes and city widespread panic, as parents rushed to save their children due to false reports of armed gunmen attacking schools.
False testimonies by authorities on Twitter and Facebook, fueled the erratic scene in the Mexican port city. There are now, two people under custody that are accused of being behind the messages and facing terrorism charges and up to 30 years in prison for their posts.
“People have to be careful with what they read in these social media sites, not everything people post is true,” said Amary Martinez, a senior at Booker T. Washington.
One of the posts said that there were five children kidnapped, while another mentioned bomb threats. Even a post describing a gun firing helicopter at an elementary school, was included. The charges claim that the messages caused so much panic that even emergency numbers crashed, disrupting the service for real emergencies. Veracruz and nearby suburb of Boca del Rio were already on edge after weeks of gun battles that involved drug traffickers.
Veracruz, a coastal state in eastern Mexico, has seen an increase in violence over the past three years, as criminal organizations fight over drug trafficking routes. Gilberto Martinez Vera, who works as a low-paid tutor at private schools, started the rush of fear, with constant messages that gunmen were taking children from schools.
"My sister-in-law just called me all upset, they just kidnapped five children from the school," Martinez tweeted.
The truth was that there were no kidnappings that day. Vera's defense lawyer Claribel Guevara said the rumors had started before and that Vera was just repeating what others had told him. He claimed to never having firsthand knowledge of the incident.
However, in a following tweet, Vera said:
"I don't know what time it happened, but it's true."
Three days earlier he had also tweeted:
"They mowed down six kids between 13 and 15 in the Hidalgo neighborhood."
There was a similar attack, but it never involved any children.
The prosecutors say that rumors were also sent by Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola, a former teacher and radio commentator. Pagola also claimed to only re-tweet the message to her followers.
There are online petitions demanding their release, and the case has been absorbed by human rights groups that say the charges are out of proportion. Amnesty International says the Mexican officials are violating freedom of expression, which allows them to have a fair trial.
Raul Trejo, an expert on violence and media at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, stated that Twitter users have to learn to not believe everything that is posted there. Yet the real problem proves to be that governments cannot prevent drug cartel violence or even inform citizens accurately about it. Local news media are often so shaken up by the kidnappings and killings of reporters that they became too afraid to report about it.
“In this case, everything seems to be blown out of proportion, mainly due to the 30 year sentence if convicted, that is too much time in prison for tweeting even thought it was a sensitive topic to post online,” Martinez said.
This case appears to be one of the most serious charges ever brought upon court law, for forwarding a tweet. Tweeter Paul Chambers was fined 385 pounds and ordered to pay 2,000 pounds ($3,225) in prosecution costs, for tweeting that if northern England's Robin Hood Airport didn't reopen in time for his flight,
"[He’d blow up] the airport sky high!!"
Venezuelan authorities charged two people with spreading false information about the country's banking system using Twitter. Because many were informed to remove their money from the banks, the two who started spreading the information, can serve up to 9 to 11 years in prison.
Think before you tweet.