8 years ago
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Man arrested for parodying mayor on Twitter gets $125K in civil lawsuit
An Illinois man arrested when his residence was raided for parodying his town's mayor on Twitter is settling a civil rights lawsuit with the city of Peoria for $125,000. The accord spells out that the local authorities are not to prosecute people for parodies or satire. Plaintiff Jon Daniel, the operator of the @peoriamayor handle, was initially accused last year of impersonating a public official in violation of Illinois law.
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"Parody" has always been a weird loop-hole in the law for me to understand, as it seems too based on interpretation. I didn't really follow this story very closely, but from that screenshot, I would have sided with "impersonation" as well. Nothing really gives the indication of it being intentionally fake, aside from the outlandish tweet. It's all set up to look official.