8/7/2012
By Ivan Pereira
Twitter is forking over the identity of the person who threatened to shoot up a Broadway theater in an attack similar to the Colorado massacre.
The social networking site complied with a subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney’s office Tuesday and will give the police any info the site has on one of its users who tweeted that he or she was going to shoot up Longacre, the Times Square theater that is showing Mike Tyson’s one-man show.
“We take the threat seriously, especially in light of recent attacks in Wisconsin and Colorado,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a statement.
The user, Obamasmistress, removed the account from Twitter but tweeted that he or she lived in Florida and would be coming up to the city.
“I’m serious people are gonna die just like in aurora,” the user tweeted sometime around Aug. 3.
Twitter declined to talk about the investigation or the subpoena. A NYPD spokesman said officers were still outside the theater as a precaution.
Social media users in the city said the police is right to ask Twitter and any other social networking site to reveal the source of threatening messages in light of the recent mass shootings.
Susan Gold, 54, of midtown, said anyone making threatening messages on Facebook and Twitter should be considered dangerous, even if intended as jokes.
“It’s always that one [message] that they don’t take seriously that turns out to be from someone who actually shoots something up,” she said.
Corey Cohen, 23, a screenwriter from Park Slope who has both a Facebook and Twitter account, agreed but said he did have concerns that law enforcement would begin to encroach more into people’s privacy.
“What’s next? Are the cops going to jump in and read my Gmail when I’m writing notes for my story?” he asked.
