It’s undeniable that social media has made, and is making, a huge impact on our culture.  Most of these changes are for the better, like better customer awareness, and new ways to socialize and coordinate with friends.  For all the good, there’s certainly plenty bad, for instance, giving certain groups the ability to obtain a wealth of information about many individuals, information that would normally be deemed private.  

Some of these negative cases involve people who should know better manipulating the system, but some are just from plain ignorance.  Some are both.  

For example, take the mayor of Peoria, IL, Jim Ardis.  After an anonymous individual created a Twitter account with the handle @PeoriaMayor and filled it with less than upstanding content, Ardis took matters to the next level.  After pressuring some of the people who worked for him, the mayor was informed that a little-known law prohibited the impersonation of state officials.  Despite the fact that this law is questionably applicable in this instance, Ardis called up the police force with warrants against Twitter, Comcast, and Google, then raided a local home and detained three individuals.  

To most people, this would all seem like a massive waste of time and resources.  And most people would be right.  Parody Twitter accounts have existed since the start of the service, and aside from some maybe hurt feelings, no one has taken it as badly as Jim Ardis.  Either he doesn’t really know how Twitter works, or he has the thinnest skin on the planet.  

For the full and fascinating story, visit Ars Technica.