Blogger Out on Bail After Being Charged Under Cyberbullying Act

Joseph Ryan Budna, a freelance social media blogger, is now out on a three-thousand-dollar bail after pleading not guilty to two charges under the Cyberbullying Act. These latest charges were brought against Budna after a businesswoman from San Lazaro Village accused him of making defamatory statements about her during a live social media broadcast. Budna, in his court appearance in Orange Walk today, pleaded guilty to previous, unrelated charges and was fined by the court. For the most recent charges, he is to reappear in court on August 15. The current charges include one count of “using a computer system to publish computer data to cause a person substantial emotional distress” and another count of “using a computer system to disseminate a false statement with the intent to cause another person to be subject to public ridicule.”