Ireland/United States - A simple statement to a friend through Twitter got an Irish citizen barred from the United States.
Leigh Van Bryan sent this tweet to a friend in reply to a friend asking him about his upcoming plans.
It turns out before he even landed in Los Angeles his tweet was flagged by the Department of Homeland Security. In this context, according to Van Bryan, the word "destroy" meant "party".
After explaining this to the DHS officials, he and his friend Emily Bunting were still denied access into the country, held for 12 hours, then sent back to Ireland.
Van Bryan was also asked about another tweet, this one a joke, stating he was planning to "dig up Marilyn Monroe", the infamous Hollywood actress.
"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 fucked up with that tweet, boy,' " said Van Bryan.
This comes shortly after Twitter announced its new policy in which they will be censoring tweets if a country's government requests them to do so (which makes at least Thailand happy). The tweet can still be seen in other countries, just not the country in which it originated. The FBI is also looking for a tool to help them monitor sites like Facebook and Twitter more closely and effectively. The CIA is doing the same thing, and has been for years if not decades, though whether it's now doing it with a program or not is still unknown.
Note: I do realize this is from the Daily Mail, which is America's version of Fox News (i.e. unreliable) but it seems the Twitter account in question is real. Since the tweets are protected, I can't exactly look for the exact one myself.
Leigh Van Bryan sent this tweet to a friend in reply to a friend asking him about his upcoming plans.
It turns out before he even landed in Los Angeles his tweet was flagged by the Department of Homeland Security. In this context, according to Van Bryan, the word "destroy" meant "party".
After explaining this to the DHS officials, he and his friend Emily Bunting were still denied access into the country, held for 12 hours, then sent back to Ireland.
Van Bryan was also asked about another tweet, this one a joke, stating he was planning to "dig up Marilyn Monroe", the infamous Hollywood actress.
"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 fucked up with that tweet, boy,' " said Van Bryan.
This comes shortly after Twitter announced its new policy in which they will be censoring tweets if a country's government requests them to do so (which makes at least Thailand happy). The tweet can still be seen in other countries, just not the country in which it originated. The FBI is also looking for a tool to help them monitor sites like Facebook and Twitter more closely and effectively. The CIA is doing the same thing, and has been for years if not decades, though whether it's now doing it with a program or not is still unknown.
Note: I do realize this is from the Daily Mail, which is America's version of Fox News (i.e. unreliable) but it seems the Twitter account in question is real. Since the tweets are protected, I can't exactly look for the exact one myself.
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