OPINION:
Twitter: How far is too far?
On Monday April 13, a 14-year-old Dutch girl from Rotterdam was arrested after tweeting a specific terror threat to American Airlines. The Twitter user, who goes by Sarah and has the username @QueenDemetriax_ said, “@AmericanAir 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.”
The official Twitter account for American Airlines responded swiftly, tweeting “@QueenDemetriax_ Sarah, we take these threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI.”
Moments later, Sarah realized her mistake and pleaded with the airline, saying “I’m just a girl” and claimed that it was her friend that sent the tweet on her account. “@AmericanAir omfg I was kidding.” “@AmericanAir I’m so sorry I’m scared now.” “I’m not gonna tell my parents, they’ll tell me to delete my acc omg that would be the end of my life.”
Though the tweet landed her in jail, she was enthralled by the new followers that she received. “Wow bc of this I gained 1k followers,” Sarah tweeted, as she eventually ended the day with almost 30,000 new followers. Later, Twitter closed her account because the social media website does not allow users to “make direct, specific threats of violence against others,” which is a part of the Twitter Rules covered under the abusive behavior policy.
There are countless problems that can arise from Twitter and social media in general, but one is a perceived anonymity. People on Twitter and other forms of social media often think that they can type whatever they want and that they have no obligation to deal with the consequences of their actions. If “Sarah” were to actually confront the CEO of American Airlines, Doug Parker, I doubt she would have proceeded to tell him that she is a part of the Al Qaida and is planning “something big.” He probably would have laughed it off, as Sarah is a 14-year-old girl, and then would have proceeded to arrest her.
However, on Twitter, “QueenDemetriax_” seems to think that she truly is a queen and therefore has the free reign (no pun intended) to exercise her “power” and threaten whomever she pleases. This is perceived anonymity; teens believe that they will never be confronted about their tweets because they are hiding behind a keyboard.
According to Fort Collins High School sophomore Rebecca Hamner, “Subtweeting is not only really immature but is becoming a problem. “Kids are insulting each other left and right on Twitter without confrontation.”
“A subtweet is a tweet about someone else on Twitter that doesn’t directly mention them. Instead of being confrontational, subtweets are sneakier – they’re not the locker room brawls of Twitter, they’re the cruel locker-side whispers,” digitaltrends.com said. Basically, a “subtweet” is a subliminal tweet about another person (who can thus assume the tweet is about them but doesn’t confront the subtweeter in hopes that the tweet really isn’t about them).
Maybe if @QueenDemetriax_ had subliminally tweeted about her terrorism threat, she wouldn’t be in jail.
