This teen quickly learned to never tweet a terrorism joke to an airline
Twitter/Caroline Moss
A bored teen on Twitter is probably going to have her internet privileges revoked after tweeting a threat about terrorism to American Airlines. The floral crown-adorned user, named Sarah, joked her name was Ibrahim and threatened an airliner. "I'm part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I'm gonna do something really big bye," she said.
She immediately regretted her joke after the airline tweeted that they were going to forward her IP address and "details" to the FBI. A Twitter spokesman said American Airlines doesn't have access to users' information, so the tweet's message seems more of a scare tactic. Either way, it worked as the teen quickly backpedaled before claiming she was hacked. "I was joking and it was my friend not me, take her IP address not mine," she tweeted. "I'm just a fangirl pls I don't have evil thoughts and plus I'm a white girl."
Her account disappeared late Sunday night, as did American Airlines' tweet. The FBI, citing policy, didn't say if they were investigating the threat.
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Update 11:30 a.m.: The teenager behind the tweets has been arrested at her home in the Netherlands, confirms Business Insider. No charges have been filed at this point. "We just thought it was necessary to bring this out mostly because of the fact that it caused a great deal of interest on the Internet," said a spokesperson for the Dutch police.
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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
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