Christopher Charles Perez was arrested after posting two ’threatening messages’ on Facebook claiming he had paid someone infected with the virus’ to lick items at grocery stores.
A federal jury has sentenced a Texas man to 15 months in federal prison after finding him guilty of staging a Covid-19-related hoax on social media, prosecutors said.
"My homeboys cousin has covid19 and has licked every thing for past 2 days cause we paid him to," Perez wrote on Facebook, according to court documents."Big difference is we told him not to be these idiots who record and post online . . . YOU'VE BEEN WARNED." The posts were made at a time when Covid-19 had just begun widely spreading in the United States. Both the public and medical community were only beginning to understand how the virus spread and the massive impact it would have on daily life, prompting widespread fear and anxiety."Trying to scare people with the threat of spreading dangerous diseases is no joking matter," said US Attorney Ashley C. Hoff, according to court documents.
Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has tracked misinformation related to Covid-19 online, said Perez's case is"a good example that what you do on social media has real life consequences, and also that what you do on social media is not freedom of speech."
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