Can people use their influence to find the identities of Twitter users?

[Jessica]

I was having a discussion on Twitter with a person I have never met (about movies). When I ignored this person's advances and focused on the discussion, they quickly became rude and insulting. Before I blocked this person they said they would use their connections in law enforcement to get me in trouble.

I doubt he can do that. Freedom of speech and all that; plus, people make crazy claims on Twitter all of the time.

But it made me wonder: can people with connections or with celebrity influence track their Twitter users if those users tick them off? I'm talking about cases where Twitter users say nasty but non violent or threatening things to celebrities or wealthy influential people.

I know the likelihood of someone tracking down a Twitter user through official means are slim - maybe I'm wrong? - but what about using connections, like police officers who owe you a favor or people at an ISP who might be starstruck by you?

Could a celebrity track down their harasser?

[Rebecca]

I'm pretty sure a person with connections to law enforcement might be able to track down your IP address etc. But since they are threatening you without you actually being rude to them, I highly doubt they have anything to do with law enforcement, probably just a troll who is trying to mess with you. But as for celebrities, I'm pretty sure with the amount of money they have, they can probably pay someone to track their hassler's down for them. I recently seen on TV about a boxer from the UK (I forget his name), who had a twitter troll who hassled him for months, saying nasty and threatening things (the usuall 'your terrible at your job, you can't throw a punch to save your life, I bet you wouldn't be able to fight me' etc. kind of things), and somehow the boxer tracked him down, and tweeted to him 'I'm outside your door, come on out' and the troll started apologising haha, the boxer even uploaded a picture of himself standing outside the mans door waiting for him. So pretty much anyone could track down you if they are computer savvy enough. But this person who so called has 'connections with law enforcement' is talking bull haha.