Be careful what you tweet

[johalareewi]

Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to 'destroy America' and 'dig up Marilyn Monroe'

British tourists arrested in America on terror charges over Twitter jokes | Mail Online

[qbee42]

Well, you know the old saying: "You are what you tweet."

Tom

[JimboPalmer]

Being stupid does not require any technology.

[fuzzy1]

Ho hum. I hope the Brits know that this has been standard operating procedure with Homeland Security ever since the department was created in the wake of 9/11.

At least these tourists were given a reason for their detention. A huge number of people have not been told why they were denied entry, or even denied boarding an aircraft within the U.S.

[kornkob]

By way of contrast......
Nickel Fights Back - Funny Facebook Status Messages and Facebook Fails

[Michgal007]

How did they know about the tweets?

[Politburo]

They were public messages.

[frodoz737]

You didn't know every thing you say, type or do is open to Government surveillance. They call it the Patriot Act.

Patriot Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Patriot_Act

[Michgal007]

Originally Posted by Politburo

They were public messages.

I know they were public, but do they look at tweets, facebook etc. of thousands of passengers going through immigration every day? Also, how do they know whose account it is? Perhaps they have a "list" of words they monitor?

Edit: Found this along with the article:

The Department of Homeland Security was recently criticised over false accounts it set up on Twitter.
These are then used to scan networks for 'sensitive' words and then for tracking the people who use them.


Online privacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Centre requested information on the DHS's scans, which it says the agency announced in February last year.


The group claims that a request under the Freedom of Information Act to access the documentation has gone unanswered.


The words deemed as being sensitive by the DHS include:

• Illegal immigrant
• Outbreak
• Drill
• Strain
• Virus
• Recovery
• Deaths
• Collapse
• Human to animal
• Trojan

[Bodgerx]

Originally Posted by fuzzy1

Ho hum. I hope the Brits know that this has been standard operating procedure with Homeland Security ever since the department was created in the wake of 9/11.

At least these tourists were given a reason for their detention. A huge number of people have not been told why they were denied entry, or even denied boarding an aircraft within the U.S.

Oh yes we do.

As a UK Citizen that has been frequently to the US for vacations/work/visting relatives, I find the attitude of a lot of US Immigration officials disgraceful. It is not a good advert for the country, it has to be said.

Granted, what these two did was daft.