140 characters can be all you need to end up behind bars.
Over the years, more than a dozen people – mostly teenagers – have been arrested for tweeting. Most of the arrest-worthy tweets were violent, mentioning mass shootings, assassinations, bomb threats, and more.
Sometimes the intent behind the violent messages is pure. They were either sent sarcastically, or they were phrases taken out of context.
The following examples serves as reminders that everything you write on social media is public. Be careful what you say, because you're always being watched.
1. Tweeting about "mass homicide"
A 15-year-old Chicago high school sophomore with the twitter handle @Mark12394995 tweeted about the Zimmerman trial before a verdict had been reached.
“If Zimmmerman free imma shoot everybody in Zion causing a mass homicide, and ill get away wit it just like Zimmerman [all sic],” he wrote in July 2013.
Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin during unofficial neighborhood watch duty a year ago; in a controversial decision, the jury just found him not guilty of murder.
The Zion Police Department brought "Mark" into the station, The News-Sun reports.
But the police say they found "no credibility" to the threat. "He has no weapons and no access to weapons," an official told The News-Sun. The teen was soon let go with a Class 4 felony, disorderly conduct.
2. Tweeting about assassinating the President.
In September 2012, one day before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, 21-year-old Donte Jamar Sims felt need to tweet something alarming:
"Ima hit president Obama with that Lee Harvey Oswald swagg," he wrote, referencing John F. Kennedy's killer.
Followed by:
"Well Ima Assassinate president Obama this evening !...Gotta get this monkey off my chest while he's in town -_-"
And:
"The Secret Service is gonna be defenseless once I aim the Assualt Rifle at Barack's Forehead ... F* the #DNC !"
Sims was later arrested, Gawker reports. His Twitter account was active for the first time in 10 months on Tuesday, July 16.
3. Encouraging others to kill the President.
Jarvis Britton, 26, was arrested after tweeting about President Obama.
Last September he tweeted, "Let's kill the president. F.E.A.R. [a group which stands for Forever Enduring Always Ready]" Then, "Can the president stop it? He only has 36 hours."
Britton plead guilty to threatening the life of the president. He was sentenced to one year in federal prison, The Huffington Post reports.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider