If you have something offensive you’d like to tweet about Rep. Michele Bachmann, think twice.
A federal judge has ordered the identity of a male tweeter to be revealed to a grand jury after he tweeted “I want to f*** Michelle Bachman … with a Vietnam era machete,” reported Politico. The tweet was made on Aug. 2, 2011, and has since been deleted from his account, according to court documents.
The ruling against the tweeter, who was referred to as Mr. X, was made in December after a subpoena was issued to Twitter, Inc. on Aug. 5, 2011, demanding that Twitter provide any records revealing the user’s name.
Judge Royce Lamberth wrote that an overview of Mr. X’s Twitter page was warranted to protect “those who seriously aspire to the federal government’s highest office,” citing attacks against Robert F. Kennedy and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as examples.
“Mr. X’s body of tweets is extremely crude and in almost incomprehensibly poor taste. Occasionally political but consistently vacuous, his oeuvre represents an infantile attempt at humor that brings to mind the most obscene aspects of Andrew Dice Clay, but without even the infinitesimal modicum of artistic creativity that Mr. Clay managed to possess.”
So far, no one has been charged in the investigation , and Lamberth doesn’t believe that Mr. X actually meant to harm Bachmann.
About four months ago, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo called his company the “free speech wing of the free speech party.” But as Mr. X just proved, there is a limit to free speech, especially when it comes to violent messages directed at public officials.
Photo by Gage Skidmore
