Read about: Demi Moore Twitter Suicide

When it comes to celebrities who post on Twitter, Demi Moore and her husband Ashton Kutcher are just about the most well known and prolific posters. Combined, they have over one million followers to whom they post text and photo updates at least a couple of times a day. While most of the time their tweets and their followers are fairly free of drama, Demi was once caught up in thwarting a suicide attempt.

The Demi twitter suicide incident began when she received a tweet from a follower that stated “getting a knife, a big one that is sharp. Going to cut my arm down the whole arm so it doesn’t waste time.” Demi was in Southern France when she received the tweet, where she was spending time with her husband as he filmed a movie. She responded immediately with a tweet that said “Hope you are joking.”

While Demi did not directly contact the police regarding the suicide tweet, her twitter followers saw the message and began to track the user who posted it, eventually tracing the tweet to a San Jose, California home. The San Jose police department’s spokesperson stated that around 4:37 a.m. a concerned citizen (who was not Demi or Ashton) reported seeing Demi’s twitter suicide message. Demi tweeted soon after receiving the message “Thanks everyone for reaching out to the San Jose PD I am told they are aware and no need to call anymore. I do not know this woman.”

With the help of Demi’s twitter followers, Police were eventually able to track down the home of the twitter suicide poster. They found the 48-year old woman unharmed but requiring psychological help, and they took her into custody. They found her to be in need of a 72-hour psychological evaluation, and she was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Responding to the twitter suicide post Demi tweeted that she “was very torn about responding or retweeting that woman’s post but felt uncomfortable just letting it go,” assuring her followers that “the twitterverse is on the case.” After the twitter suicide post Demi covered her bases by tweeting “And if it is a joke it is not funny and nor is this an appropriate outlet for such a serious matter Time for us to move on.”

The Demi twitter suicide incident isn’t the first time a celebrity became caught up in drama by using the social networking application. A huge part of Twitter’s success revolves around the fact that it allows and encourages direct contact between celebrities and their fans. Traditionally, this relationship was managed by a host of handlers and PR representatives who kept their clients at a remove from their fans. While twitter has helped a number of celebrities’ images, it also has become a nightmare for PR agents due to incidents like the Demi twitter suicide case.

Because the site removes the barriers between the two, celebrities are often targeted with dramatic messages and actions. Furthermore, plenty of fake celebrity accounts owned by people imitating their favorite stars accumulate thousands of followers and sow a lot of confusion, further complicating the relationship between fan and celebrity. In addition, there have been numerous cases of celebrity twitter accounts being hacked, including political posters such as CNN’s Rick Sanchez, FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly’s, and Barack Obamas, in addition to entertainment celebrities like Britney Spear’s twitter account. All in all, the Demi twitter suicide incident is not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, example of twitter creating large scale drama.