Kicked out of the US over a twitter Joke.

Raging_Ninja · 30-01-2012 05:10PM

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

If you are thinking of travelling to the states watch your mouth on line. This looks like a similar case to the Paul Chambers blow up RobinHood Airport incident two years ago but there is a worrying difference.

Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'. Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America'.

What is worse, someone being arrested and deported for an innocent twitter message or the fact that the American Secret Service monitors every electronic message you make in the world?

Looks like another Paul Chambers case only in this incident the message would have been detected by automated US intelligence search robots rather than a physical person accidentally coming across the message.

This type of stuff is a grave concern considering our current government is willing to sign away our civil liberties to US orchestrated pacts such as ATCA, SOPA and PIPA which will similarly trawl through monitor and chastise your personal on line life.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4095372/Twitter-news-US-bars-friends-over-Twitter-joke.html

I've yet to see legislation where foreign nationals must be allowed entry to a country. In the end he was merely refused entry - he didn't go to prison, he was just held in custody and questioned before being put on a flight back.

Yahew wrote: »

It is pretty scary that they are spending all that effort on twitter too. The American authorities are going for the easy option here, well easier. Massive monitoring of twitter in case the next 9/11'ers are orchestrating something in public, and probably one Farsi or Arabic speaker trawling though some random locked down radical islamic sites, without software, non-Roman scripts being to hard to search.

Its all one great big internet.

hatrickpatrick · 30-01-2012 05:28PM

Overheal wrote: »

It's not a 4th amendment violation or anything either. It's a public site, the information can be viewed by anyone. If the CIA or NSA wants to run a server farm that trawls public twitter messages for threats, they can do that, just as much as google does the same thing to index the web.

Flipside is there are/were a few attempts to try and make it law for ISPs to have to store and record everything that a user does: every website they visit, etc. etc. and basically track the behavior of every user in the US from the back-end. That was shot down as a 4th amendment violation.

No, but it is a 1st amendment violation, surely?
And besides, anyone with half a brain knows that "destroy" in this context is clearly a slang metaphor, in the same way as you might say you "destroyed" a gaff or club, IE had a massive session in it.

Fear Uladh · 30-01-2012 05:33PM

American't believe it.

LighterGuy · 30-01-2012 05:38PM

That is insane :eek:
So some guy made a joke on twitter, and then homeland security held him upon entry?

its pretty obvious how they knew. flagged words used such as 'Destroy america' brought it to their attention... Therefore every twitter is being monitered. Facebook has to be too.

Raging_Ninja · 30-01-2012 05:41PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

No, but it is a 1st amendment violation, surely?
And besides, anyone with half a brain knows that "destroy" in this context is clearly a slang metaphor, in the same way as you might say you "destroyed" a gaff or club, IE had a massive session in it.

You only have 1st amendment rights inside the US. He's a foreign national and the comments were made before he entered the country. He got to customs, was questioned and was refused entry.

Yahew · 30-01-2012 05:43PM

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

Its all one great big internet.

Yeah? Not for locked down forums it aint. It would take a bit of work to track those though.

Raging_Ninja · 30-01-2012 05:45PM

Yahew wrote: »

Yeah? Not for locked down forums it aint. It would take a bit of work to track those though.

You'd be surprised. If it's conected to the internet, people can get onto it whether you want it or not.

Yahew · 30-01-2012 05:48PM

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

You'd be surprised. If it's conected to the internet, people can get onto it whether you want it or not.

That's me signing out of my online banking options.

ejmaztec · 30-01-2012 05:56PM

It was all a ruse to distract Homeland Security from the truck-load of nukes heading north across the Mexican border.

nyarlothothep · 30-01-2012 06:01PM

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

If you are thinking of travelling to the states watch your mouth on line. This looks like a similar case to the Paul Chambers blow up RobinHood Airport incident two years ago but there is a worrying difference.

Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'. Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: 'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America'.

What is worse, someone being arrested and deported for an innocent twitter message or the fact that the American Secret Service monitors every electronic message you make in the world?

Looks like another Paul Chambers case only in this incident the message would have been detected by automated US intelligence search robots rather than a physical person accidentally coming across the message.

This type of stuff is a grave concern considering our current government is willing to sign away our civil liberties to US orchestrated pacts such as ATCA, SOPA and PIPA which will similarly trawl through monitor and chastise your personal on line life.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4095372/Twitter-news-US-bars-friends-over-Twitter-joke.html

What I find most worrying is that someone reading those messages thought "durr must arrest terrorists!" I cannot understand this psychology/mentality present in these authority figures whatsoever.

Doc Ruby · 30-01-2012 06:03PM

LighterGuy wrote: »

its pretty obvious how they knew. flagged words used such as 'Destroy america' brought it to their attention... Therefore every twitter is being monitered. Facebook has to be too.

Everything is monitored, emails, text messages on your phone, phone calls, posts on boards, google searches, downloads, facebook, everything. Watch that documentary Enemy of the State for more information.

Thats not to say there's some lad in a dark suit and shades sitting in front of a bank of monitors saying right, lets see what LighterGuy is up to today, it's monitored by programs which are tuned to watch for certain key phrases or combinations of activities which have been deemed suspicious. If something gets noticed, then you get the guy in the suit looking at it.

Raging_Ninja · 30-01-2012 06:06PM

Yahew wrote: »

That's me signing out of my online banking options.

You're right to do that. All you need is spyware on your computer, and people would be able to see what details you're entering to gain access to your bank account information. As these things go, that would be fairly straightforward.

Besides, the Echelon project searches through pretty much every form of electronic communication out there (beyond dedicated hardlines), searching for keywords etc, flagging suspicious messages to be analysed.

Irish Steve · 30-01-2012 06:28PM

Puts a whole new meaning on the langers that post things like "destroyed the bog before boarding the flight":D

30-01-2012 06:59PM

How long will it before we hear about "Americans admit to becoming paranoid about being paranoid!"

Temptamperu · 30-01-2012 07:01PM

working fool wrote: »

You need to be careful
Saying that
" the firecracker is in the bigmac . The shoemaker will deliver it at 4pm "

A winks as good as a nudge to a blind bat

Gordon · 30-01-2012 07:12PM

This didn't happen on Twitter, it happened on tweeter apparently:

Freddie59 · 30-01-2012 07:16PM

Two eejits. Rather than some BB conspiracy, there is every chance it was either:

* Stumbled upon.

* Reported.

RichieC · 30-01-2012 07:21PM

Freddie59 wrote: »

Two eejits. Rather than some BB conspiracy, there is every chance it was either:

* Stumbled upon.

* Reported.

Patriot act.

Freddie59 · 30-01-2012 07:23PM

RichieC wrote: »

Patriot act.

They were fcuked out for being two thickeens really.

Cianos · 30-01-2012 07:36PM

Freddie59 wrote: »

They were fcuked out for being two thickeens really.

It's one thing saying "I have a bomb lol" to the check in desk, it's another tweeting something so meaningless and unspecific.

How many times have you heard bands etc rattle on about "conquering America"...it's the same thing.

When censorship reaches this level of paranoia, lacking any application of common sense at the mercy of individual freedom it does well to reinforce the climate of fear often spoken about.

RichieC · 30-01-2012 07:38PM

Freddie59 wrote: »

RichieC wrote: »

Patriot act.

They were fcuked out for being two thickeens really.

More likely the opposite.

sgb · 30-01-2012 07:39PM

Check out the picture on OP's link

She seems to be holding the handle of her suitcase with a certain amount of passion

KeithAFC · 30-01-2012 07:44PM

This is not a surprise with it comes to the Yanks and I suppose in a way they are right to be worried considering 9/11 and all that.

RichieC · 30-01-2012 07:59PM

Freddie bends over backwards to defend ridiculous actions by the US. my bet he is american pretending to be irish.

Freddie59 · 30-01-2012 08:12PM

RichieC wrote: »

Freddie bends over backwards to defend ridiculous actions by the US. my bet he is american pretending to be irish.

Still wearing the 1960s Che G T-Shirt Richie?:D

Freddie59 · 30-01-2012 08:13PM

Cianos wrote: »

It's one thing saying "I have a bomb lol" to the check in desk, it's another tweeting something so meaningless and unspecific.

How many times have you heard bands etc rattle on about "conquering America"...it's the same thing.

When censorship reaches this level of paranoia, lacking any application of common sense at the mercy of individual freedom it does well to reinforce the climate of fear often spoken about.

Conquering America does not equal 'Destroy America'. Taken out of context? Probably (look at what we say here - the place is destroyed, etc).

But you're going abroad. When in Rome, etc.

bluestripe93 · 30-01-2012 08:15PM

They were also searched for shovels – after border agents voiced suspicions Bunting would act as a look-out while Van Bryan raided the Hollywood starlet’s tomb.

Cianos · 30-01-2012 08:24PM

Freddie59 wrote: »

Conquering America does not equal 'Destroy America'. Taken out of context? Probably (look at what we say here - the place is destroyed, etc).

But you're going abroad. When in Rome, etc.

They weren't in Rome America, they were going to Rome America.

So now everyone planning a trip away to the states has to censor everything they say publicly before hand no matter how mundane and trivial in case poor little America gets a bit of a fright. :rolleyes:

pdbhp · 30-01-2012 08:27PM

Jaysus America is some shít hole alright, I cannot believe they'd take action like that what a bunch of filthy Communists..

Temptamperu · 30-01-2012 08:28PM

Cianos wrote: »

They weren't in Rome America, they were going to Rome America.

So now everyone planning a trip away to the states has to censor everything they say publicly before hand no matter how mundane and trivial in case poor little America gets a bit of a fright. :rolleyes:

Now your getting it :P

Kicked out of the US over a twitter Joke.

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