George Zimmerman Was Suspended From Twitter For Posting an Ex's Nudes
On Thursday afternoon, George Zimmerman, the Florida man who was charged in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, tweeted nude photos of a woman he claimed cheated on him "with a dirty Muslim."
In addition to posting a topless photo of the woman, who is identified in the tweet by her first name, Zimmerman also included what appears to be the woman's phone number and, in a second tweet that contains another nude image, her email address. (Mic has blurred the woman's face and identifying information in the images below.)
Neither the images nor the woman's contact information appear to have been posted consensually, which might make the tweets a violation of Florida's sexual cyberharassment law, which Gov. Rick Scott signed earlier this year. Florida is one of 17 states to enact legislation regarding the posting of nude images without consent within the past several years, according to Reuters.
Part of a nationwide effort to curb "revenge porn" online, the law makes it a misdemeanor to post or transmit nude photos that include subjects' identifying information without their consent. The crime is punishable by up to one year in prison, Reuters reported.
According to University of Miami professor and revenge porn legal expert Dr. Mary Anne Franks, however, Zimmerman's tweets, while a direct violation of Twitter's abusive behavior policy, might not be illegal.
"This image probably doesn't qualify—it's not quite 'nude,'' Franks told the Daily Dot. Under Florida law, images only qualify as revenge porn if they are "sexually explicit," which Zimmerman's photos arguably aren't.
Efforts to curb online harassment, specifically revenge porn, picked up last year after scores of celebrities' nude photos were hacked and posted online, sparking a nationwide discussion about sex crimes on the Internet. Several female stars who were targeted in the attack, including Jennifer Lawrence, have been outspoken about the criminal nature of the violation.
"It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It's disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change," Lawrence told Vanity Fair last year.
Zimmerman, who was arrested in January for alleged domestic violence, has been involved in several violent incidents since he was acquitted of killing Martin in 2013. Coincidentally, he happened to post his tweets on the same day former revenge porn impresario Hunter Moore was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for operating the now-defunct revenge porn website Is Anyone Up.
George Zimmerman's Twitter account has been suspended since the photos were posted.
Dec. 3, 2015, 6:45 p.m.: This story has been updated.
Correction: Dec. 3, 2015:
