UK police arrested someone for identifying an alleged sexual offense victim in tweet, the Guardian reported.
In this case, the tweeter reportedly named a girl who was allegedly a victim of actor Michael Le Vell, who is “accused of 19 child sex offences,” according to the UK Mirror and Daily Star. Le Vell rejects the accusations and says he’s “innocent of these charges.”
The Guardian quoted a Detective Chief Inspector from the Greater Manchester Police, Chris Bridge, as explaining the importance of “maintaining the anonymity of victims of sex offences.” He said:
“Maintaining the anonymity of victims of sex offences is absolutely vital and is something that really helps encourage them to come forward.
“Breaching this ruling is an extremely serious offence and that is why we launched an investigation as soon as we became aware.
“Social media is an immensely powerful tool that does an awful lot of good, but it can also be used to spread rumour, speculation and in this case break the law.
“As a force GMP embraces the use of social media but when it is abused in this way we will take robust action to hold those responsible to account.”