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Two Mexicans face 30 years in jail for tweeting

2 Mexicans, facing possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage in what may be the most serious charges ever brought against anyone using a Twitter social network account, CBC News reports.

Prosecutors say the defendants, María de Jesús Bravo Pagola, a former teacher turned radio commentator and  Gilberto Martinez Vera a math tutor  helped cause a chaos of car crashes and panic as parents in the Gulf Coast city of Veracruz rushed to save their children because of false reports that gunmen were attacking schools.

Gerardo Buganza, interior secretary for Veracruz state said that, there were 26 car accidents, or people left their cars in the middle of the streets to run and pick up their children, because they thought these things were occurring at their kids’ schools.

It appears one of the most serious sets of charges ever brought for sending or resending Twitter messages.

Venezuelan authorities last year charged two people with spreading false information about the country’s banking system using Twitter and urging people to pull money out of banks. They could serve nine to 11 years in prison if convicted.

In 2009, a Chinese woman was sentenced to a year in a labor camp for posting a satirical Twitter message about the Japan pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

READ MORE : CBC NEWS