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Twitter and Terrorism: Watch what you say or be detained


PeeKnuckle

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A week ago, a UK couple were detained by TSA agents

A young couple from across the pond was detained at a Los Angeles airport after Homeland Security agents mistook a couple Twitter quips for threats against the U.S., the two told British media today.

Friends Irishman Leigh Van Bryan, 26, and British citizen Emily Bunting, 24, were reportedly interrogated and spent 12 hours locked up under armed guard after going through customs in Los Angeles International Airport last week. According to several British outlets, the couple was taken into custody by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents because of the slang in Bryan's tweets.

"Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America," one of the tweets read. Bryan told The Sun that in this context "destroy" just meant party.

"The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist. I kept saying they had got the wrong meaning from my tweet but they just told me 'You've really f***ed up with that tweet, boy'," Bryan told The Sun.

Bryan had also tweeted that he planned to be "diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!" -- another joke, he said.

"The officials told us we were not allowed in to the country because of Leigh's tweet," Bunting told The Daily Mail. "They wanted to know what we were going to do... They asked why we wanted to destroy America and we tried to explain it meant to get trashed and party... I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh's lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe."

After spending the night in custody, Bryan and Bunting were reportedly put on a plane back home through Paris.

http://abcnews.go.co...ory?id=15472918

And today it happens again, in Canada.

Boing Boing points us to the crazy story of Saad Allami, a sales manager in Quebec -- who is Muslim -- who sent a text message to some colleagues heading to New York for a trade show, in which he encouraged them to "blow away" the competition. He (quite reasonably) says that he was trying to "pump up" his staff. However, apparently Canadian law enforcement thought differently and arrested him, detained him for a day, searched his house and repeatedly told his wife he was a terrorist. I recognize that law enforcement wants to be careful, but at some point, doesn't someone run these kinds of things through a "common sense" filter?

http://www.techdirt....r-suspect.shtml

I know not everyone here at Gamercide uses Twitter. If you do, though, please watch what you say on there, Facebook and any other social media site or app. At least until this stupid ass way they run things is handled better. Hell, they could employ 16 year old girls who would tell them it was slang, instead of actual terrorism. COMMON SENSE!

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Another case, albeit in another country. Still, it sucks and is totally stupid.

Malaysian authorities extradited Saudi writer Hamza Kashgari back to Saudi Arabia Sunday on a warrant for his arrest over statements he made on Twitter.

"Saudi media said Hamza made a posting on the Prophet Mohammed's birthday celebration last week, implying that he was interacting with the prophet, as if they were equal status," Malaysia's state news agency said.

The tweets have been removed.

Kashgari was deported Sunday morning, said Ramli Yoosuf, a spokesman for the Royal Malaysian Police. "The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had arranged for his deportation."

After speaking with an immigration official, Kashgari's lawyer Muhammad Afiq Bin Mohammad Noor confirmed that his client was taken at 10 a.m. local time on a Saudi jet.

Noor said he was granted an interim court order on Sunday afternoon to prevent officials from deporting Kashgari, but it came too late.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups are concerned that Kashgari's extradition will lead to his facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

"Amnesty International considers Hamza Kashgari a prisoner of conscience...for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and calls for his immediate and unconditional release," the group said in a statement.

Saudi officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kashgari's controversial tweets included language saying he loved some aspects of Mohammed and "hated" others, and will "not pray for you," according to news reports.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/12/world/asia/malaysia-saudi-tweets/index.html

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They should round up all the dumb ****** saying they'd love for chris brown to beat them, make them volunteer in a women's shelter for battered women and then see how they feel about abuse.

And all the people who don't know who Paul McCartney is? Need a music lesson.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/horrible-reactions-to-chris-brown-at-the-grammys

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