20-year-old Dakkari McAnuff, from Los Angeles, tweeted a picture of a gun pointed at a steet, with the caption: “100 rts [retweets] and I’ll shoot someone walking.”
This week Los Angeles Police Department confirmed a man had been arrested for making criminal threats.
Dakkari was traced via his Twitter account, and he remains in jail with a bail of $50,000.
A US newspaper reported that the weapon in the picture was an air rifle but confirmed that he hadn’t shot anyone.
After his original Twitter account was taken down, Dakkari created a new one and tweeted: “What they didn’t say was it was CLEARLY A PRANK!... #FreeDMC.”
Dakkari’s arrest comes after it was reported crimes on Twitter have risen by 390 per cent.
According to new figures, there were 174 crimes relating to Twitter in 2011 compared to the 852 last year.
Some of the types of crime included terrorism, sexual assault, shoplifting and blackmail.
Think-tank Parliament Street, who are responsible for the new figures, said: “Every police officer should be equipped with the latest cyber skills backed up by tougher sentences.”