British Teens Threaten To “Destroy America”

Twitter is a powerful tool. It can be used for good or for evil. Whether to enlighten the masses as to who JBieb’s latest crush is or for potential GOP candidates to spew nonsense about whatever they desire, tweeting is an extremely influential social media tool and, sometimes, weapon. As is the current trend of this illustrious country, sometimes things are taken too far. Unfortunately for two British teens just looking for a good time, Homeland Security decided to take their tweets a little too literally.

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Leigh Ban Bryan and Emily Bunting are two Twitter fiends who perhaps went a little too far in their fun. Tweets involving references to “digging up Marilyn Monroe” and “destroying America,” a phrase implying partying, were taken as terrorist threats to the United States. Upon landing in L.A., the Brits were questioned and jailed overnight with Mexican drug dealers. While they were released and flown back to England the day after, the pair would have to apply for visas from the U.S. Embassy if they ever wish to visit the US again.

Now, it’s perfectly understandable that Homeland Security wishes to protect our borders and make sure no terrorist threats are allowed to be fulfilled. However, this incident is going way too far. Between misinterpretation of clearly harmless tweets, roughly handling adolescents, and overreacting in general, it’s clear this situation was bungled. While it’s legitimate to suggest that perhaps frequent tweeters should be a little more careful in their wording, Homeland Security should do a little more investigation into popular phrasing and be able to interpret statements contextually.

However, even more fundamentally, I think it’s time for the government to step into the twenty-first century. While President Obama has certainly made leaps forward, such as appointing the recently departed first federal CTO, Aneesh Chopra, the entire issue of technology within government needs to be dealt with. Whether trying to regulate the internet (SOPA and PIPA), understand security threats in the right context, or just plain being computer literate, 2012 is the year for a change in the status quo of technology within government.