A 27-year old San Antonio man faces felony charges and up to seven years of imprisonment for allegedly using Twitter (News - Alert) to harass and threaten prominent Google executive Marissa Mayer, the company's first female engineer and its current VP of local, maps and location services.
Gregory Calvin King was indicted by a federal grand jury last week for sending more than 20,000 tweets to Mayer over a ninth-month stretch. Many of the tweets were profanity-laced and aggressive, including several that contained explicit threats of physical harm.
"IM SURE YOU THINK IM SERIOUS AND I’LL F****** SHOOT YOU” and “I REALLY THINK I NEED TO SHOOT SOMEONE TO EVEN MY F****** SCORE," read two of the tweets.
The San Francisco Examiner reports that some of the Twitter posts included accusations of Mayer having King falsely arrested. Others blame Mayer for being involved in a group that attempted to infect King with HIV. San Francisco FBI spokeswoman Julie Sohn told the paper that "there is no known connection between King and the Google (News 
- Alert) executive."
King has been charged with threats transmitted through interstate communication and making harassing communications. The FBI began the investigation in February after being notified by Google's corporate security team, and then interviewed Mayer personally in April, according to the affidavit.
The arrest is just one of many recent cases involving threats made over the micro-blogging site. Just last month, two Mexican men were arrested on charges of terrorism and sabotage for tweeting false reports that gunmen had overtaken a local school, according to the AP.
Gerardo Buganza, interior secretary for the city of Veracruz, said that the panic incited by the tweets caused 26 car crashes and a complete shutdown of the emergency response system. The suspects – a radio commentator and a math tutor – face up to 30 years in prison for if convicted. Both suspects have claimed that they were simply relaying what they had heard from others.
In another, even more bizarre case, a British man was arrested after sending a tweet expressing his displeasure with the closing of an airport.
"You've got a week... otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!" tweeted Paul Chambers. The man was quickly arrested, convicted and fined for his actions.
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Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Rich Steeves
