Girl, 14, Arrested After Terrorism Joke on Twitter

Pro tip: Not a good idea to send a fake threat to an airline
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 14, 2014 12:48 PM CDT
Girl, 14, Arrested After Terrorism Joke on Twitter
American Airlines Flight 1770 from Atlanta arrived at Philadelphia International Airport wearing the new paint job on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, in Exton, Pa.   (AP Photo/The Philadelphia Daily News, Alejandro A. Alvarez)

A 14-year-old Dutch girl found out the hard way that it's not a good idea to tweet a "joke" about terrorism ... when she got arrested after doing so. The teen, who went by "QueenDemetriax_" on Twitter and is apparently named Sarah, tweeted to American Airlines yesterday: "hello my name's Ibrahim and I'm from Afghanistan. I'm part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I'm gonna do something really big bye." American Airlines replied, "Sarah, we take these threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI." That tweet was later taken down, and it's not clear exactly what action the airline ended up taking, but Rotterdam police confirmed the teen was today arrested.

Sarah's Twitter account has since been suspended, but Deadspin has screenshots of the epic meltdown that occurred on her Twitter feed after that response, including tweets like:

  • "omfg I was kidding"
  • "I was joking and it was my friend not me, take her IP address not mine"
  • "pls pls pls can I do something to make it good pls I'm so scared I'm just a 14 year old white girl I'm not a terrorist pls"
  • "I'm not gonna tell my parents, they'll tell me to delete my acc omg that would be the end of my life"
But amid her pleas for mercy, there was the tiniest bit of satisfaction: The New York Post reports that she also tweeted, "Wow bc of this I gained 1k followers." (She racked up 30K before her account was put on ice.) Meanwhile, Gawker notes that Southwest Airlines this morning responded in similar fashion to a copycat tweet. (More terror threat stories.)

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