Activists reject U.S. arrest a Twitter user

The arrest of a New Yorker, who used Twitter to alert police protesters movements in a G20 meeting in Pittsburgh last month, would be considered a violation of their rights if it had happened in Iran or China, according to activists said.
Pittsburgh police arrested on September 24, Elliot Madison, 41, at a time when hundreds of people-some of whom threw stones and broke windows of shops-protesters on the first day of a G20 summit of rich countries and developing nations.
The protesters, with a large anti-capitalist agenda, they were kept away from the convention site where world leaders maintained their two-day meeting. Police used pepper spray to disperse sporadically.
The criminal indictment against Madison argues that violated the law by using Twitter to give instructions to the demonstrators and others involved in criminal acts to avoid arrest and inform them of the movements and actions of the police.Twitter allows its subscribers to post text messages of 140 characters.
Madison, who was released on bail, is accused of hindering the apprehension, prosecution and criminal use of communication elements and possessing instruments for committing crimes, defined as telecommunications equipment.
"The same conduct (the authorities) in Iran or China during recent protests would be seen as violations of human rights, whereas here it is considered necessary to control crime," Reuters said Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Union Civil Liberties in Pennsylvania.
Twitter was used by demonstrators in Iran amid protests and government repression that occurred after the disputed June elections in the country.
At one point, the State Department urged even Twitter to delay a planned upgrade that would temporarily cut the service in Iran.
China has repeatedly blocked access to sites like Twitter, as in May, facing the twentieth anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, and again in July after the unrest in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
Pittsburgh police, who were asked about illegal actions of Madison, noted Madison's accusation that was hindering the apprehension or law enforcement. "All law enforcement agencies should keep abreast of continuing developments in technology, both to determine how technology can help police to better serve the public and to find ways and can be used to commit crimes," said the spokesman Myra Taylor.
"The criminal indictment contends that Mr. Madison legal devices used to commit illegal acts," he said. Laura DeNardis, executive director of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, said the arrest of Madison could be used "by repressive countries that might be looking restrict the use of technology."
"They could cite this as a justification for freedom of expression even more direct and repressive measures in cases like those we saw in the protests by the Iranian elections," said DeNardis.