One Poke Over The Line: Woman Arrested for Facebook Poke

You know that poke feature on Facebook? The one that serves no other purpose than to perplex your friends and family? Some would say that such an egregiously annoying and vaguely inappropriate sounding feature is criminal. Still, I seriously doubt most people would agree that you should be arrested for poking. Nevertheless, that’s just what happened to a Tennessee woman last week.

To be fair, the woman wasn’t arrested for her Facebook poke, but rather for violating an order of protection. The court order prohibited her from “telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner.” Some might argue that a poke isn’t a mode of communication (indeed it doesn’t communicate anything besides an utter disdain for your Facebook friends’ time and patience), but, until there are more clear laws defining digital communications, prosecutors have to be creative in how they decide to prosecute Internet offenses.

We’ve seen people get served over Facebook, but this is the first time we’ve seen a poke lead to possible jail time. For more information on the “poke heard round the world,” check out the news report below.

For a funnier take on this story, make sure to check out Helen A.S. Popkin’s Technotica Blog at MSNBC.