Terror threats are serious business and should always be regarded as such. A teen age girl in the Netherlands has learned this the hard way after she allegedly took to twitter and posted a mock threat at American Airlines. Screaming fire in a movie theater is wrong, calling in bomb threats to your school is wrong, and so is sending provocative messages such as this. Yet I can't help thinking that arresting her is an over reaction when so many injustices go unanswered and real hate speech is allowed to be posted nearly unchecked with calls for assassination of our President, to taking our country back by whatever means necessary.
The post provoked a massive online exchange
and prompted the Rotterdam police to arrest the child. She thus far has claimed it was her friend that tweeted the threat towards the airline. Many have said this is exactly what she deserves for making such an online comment towards the airline. Yes law enforcement should respond to threats but they should also be able to discern a true threat from an ill conceived joke.
Now there are a few questions that need to be addressed by American Airlines concerning their meta data access. Were they merely bluffing when they said the IP address and details would be forwarded to the FBI or were they inadvertently telling the truth as Twitter has said that American Airlines does not have access to such information? We all know how many extra rights corporations have been afforded and that they are now people but how far exactly does that extend to in our modern age?
Both Sarah and American Airlines eventually removed their initial tweets. Sarah’s account was later suspended by Twitter.
According to
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/...
The conversation was quickly shared across social media with the 14-year-old quickly gaining 30,000 followers. However the @queendemetriax_ Twitter account has now been suspended and American Airlines has removed its response from its Twitter feed.
The girl, whose identity remains unknown, quickly realised her error and pleaded with American Airlines not to give her name to the FBI.
However it appears the threat from American Airlines was real, with the police in Rotterdam reporting on Monday afternoon that they had arrested a 14-year-old girl in relation to the American Airlines threat and that the investigation continues.
No word yet if all the financial terrorists who ruined the world economy, destroyed the American dream, and impoverished a generation have been arrested.
I know for a fact I feel safer now that this teenager has been arrested.