Man gets ARRESTED after Google+ 'sent an automatic invitation' to his ex who had a restraining order against him



Fined: Tom Gagnon was held on bail after breaking the no-contact order associated with a restraining order

A man has been arrested after his Google+ account sent an automated invitation to his ex-fiancée.

A Massachusetts court ruled that the invitation violated the no-contact terms of the restraining order that Tom Gagnon's fiancée took out against him.

Gagnon, 32, argued that he never sent the message to his ex, who has not been named, and that it was sent automatically by Google.

Gagnon's attorney Neil Hourihan said that his client had no control over the message and did not mean for it to be sent due to the restrictions put in place by the restraining order.

Salem News reports that Hourihan said Google operates differently than Facebook, where users personally select which friends are extended requests.

Instead, he said, Google+ sends friend requests to 'anyone you've ever contacted'.

Salem District Court judge Robert Brennan admitted on Friday December 20 that he was murky on how exactly Google operated their notification system, and set bail for Gagnon at $500 after issuing a stern warning.



Judge Brennan was the one who heard the restraining order case just days before the arrest.

Gagnon proposed to his girlfriend with a $4,000 ring on Friday December 13th and she broke up with him the next day. It is unclear whether she accepted or still has the ring.

Breaking the rules? Gagnon, 32, claims that he did not personally send the message inviting his ex to join his 'circle' on Google+ saying that the site automatically generated the invitations

That Monday, she went to the police office and had a restraining order issued against Gagnon, though it is unclear what he did to prompt legal action.

She returned to the police station three days later with a printed copy of the Google+ invitation that she had received from Gagnon that day, and he was arrested 90 minutes later.



He maintains that he had no knowledge that the Google+ notification was sent. MailOnline's calls to Google about the process by which invitations are sent were not immediately returned.