Woman arrested for Facebook poke

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Sean Kilpatrick

36-year-old Shannon Jackson was arrested for poking a woman.  She allegedly violated a protection order, which is like a restraining order – by using a Facebook poke. 

The protection order which forbade Jackson from "telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner" did not mention Facebook poking.

 Legal and police action to stop online harassment are now becoming uncommon - we covered the MySpace mom recently, who faced sentencing, and was then acquitted.  However this is probably the first ever case of someone actually being arrested for a Facebook poke.  

The poke feature has never been formally explained by Facebook but is generally used by members to say hello to their friends, or to flirt with people they do not know. You can "poke" someone that you are not friends with.

According to the local newspaper, the police in Hendersonville, Tennessee have obtained screen shots of the victim's Facebook page showing evidence of the poke, .

Jackson, who lives in Hendersonville, can get up to a year in prison and fine of $2,500 if she is found guilty of breaching the protection order. She is due to appear in court later this month.

Although this may be the first ever Facebook arrest by poking, it is certainly not the first Facebook arrest.  Earlier, we covered Although the poking angle may be unique, this is not the first time that Facebook communication has led to an arrest. Earlier this month a burglar in Italy was held after logging on to Facebook while conducting a burglary.  There have also been many divorces blamed on Facebook .
 

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