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posted by n1 on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the noise-signal-ratio dept.

Following the arrest of a Dutch teenager on Sunday for tweeting a bomb threat to American Airlines, the airline is now receiving dozens of similar threats via Twitter in protest.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by urza9814 on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:35AM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:35AM (#32139) Journal

    This trolling completely destroys whatever incentives airlines have to engage with their customers on Twitter. Which is, as many a Twitter-using traveler knows, basically the only decent line of airline customer service left.

    Great. Maybe then they'll have to work on their own customer service process. Why the hell should I be forced to hand over my personal information to a completely unrelated company in order to get decent customer service?

    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:10AM

      by davester666 (155) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:10AM (#32172)

      Basically, it amounts to "we will only help our customers if everybody can see we are".

      If they were forced to use a megaphone at the airport to talk to you when you checked in, so everybody in the area would also hear everything, they might also be a little more helpful.

      Actually, I shouldn't say this, as I have been helped by some very nice people at American Airlines, where I had a company flight and I slept through my alarm and woke up just as the plane was taking off. I phoned them, and the person put me on another flight through a different connection that actually got me to the destination before the first flight would have, and they didn't charge me anything for doing so. Other airlines also were decent to me, moving me to either the front row or the emergency exit [as I'm 6'5", and I know now they charge for those rows], when I was flying occasionally back in the '90s and early 2000's. Haven't flown since then.

      • (Score: 1) by urza9814 on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:21PM

        by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:21PM (#32419) Journal

        Hah. Seems they're no longer so great. I flew to London on American maybe 5 years ago. Never again. We had already taxied to the runway on the way back by the time they determined the hydraulics were leaking. Sat there for a few hours before they decided it couldn't be fixed that day. Was stuck there for *a week* before they could book us on a return flight. And they refused to pay for more than two nights in the airport hotel.

        WORST airline customer service I've ever gotten has always come from American; best was from a small regional, Frontier Airlines. This is all within the past ten years or so.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Angry Jesus on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:41AM

    by Angry Jesus (182) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:41AM (#32144)

    Modern society's hyper-sensitivity to anything labeled terrorism has made us vulnerable to this sort of pranking. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened sooner - when you give people a chain they can yank that will make someone dance like a fool, of course there are going to be people who yank it. Until we as a society regain a sense of proportion on the issue, the immature are going to keep making us dance. Good for them, look where maturity has gotten us.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Lagg on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:01AM

      by Lagg (105) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:01AM (#32152) Homepage Journal

      Indeed, and I love the self-righteous article author and WP's apparent fondness for security theater. One choice quote of many:

      Leaving aside, for a minute, the vast waste of taxpayer money and manpower that represents

      But the hysteria and "oh noes the terrists'" that is encouraged by the government and the entire TSA is a great investment of both.

      and then this gem:

      This trolling completely destroys whatever incentives airlines have to engage with their customers on Twitter. Which is, as many a Twitter-using traveler knows, basically the only decent line of airline customer service left.

      Two things here. 1) If twitter is considered customer service, particularly for an airline. That is pathetic and show deeper issues in how AA handles basic things much less threats. 2) If said pathetic customer service is broken by a few dozen teenagers. They have more things to worry about than fake threats.

      Conclusion: Both the Washington Post and article author need to pull their head out of their ass. But that'll be hard to do considering the latter is one of those self-proclaimed "social media experts". This article was tough to get through without heavy waves of cringe.

      --
      http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
      • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:18AM

        by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:18AM (#32160) Journal

        Weird -- I've tried 4 times to moderate you insightful. Nothing happens. Anyway, here's a virtual +1

        • (Score: 1) by francois.barbier on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:29PM

          by francois.barbier (651) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:29PM (#32365)

          Same here, still 10 mod points. For once, I was using them :(

          • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:48PM

            by frojack (1554) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:48PM (#32442) Journal

            There is/was a known problem in moderation that may or may not have been cleared up by the time you read this. It hit me too, but then cleared itself. It was posted in the site new box on the left for a while.

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by Angry Jesus on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:54AM

        by Angry Jesus (182) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:54AM (#32167)

        The best part of story is that the chaos somehow resulted in the official corporate US Airways twitter account retweeting a hilariously NFSW pic that a woman had sent to American Airlines as part of this protest.

        "WTF ONE OF YOUR PLAINES JUST CRASHED INTO MY PUSSY"

        http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/14/5614534/terror-t hreat-to-american-airlines-results-in-porn-scandal -on-twitter [theverge.com]

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:14AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:14AM (#32158) Homepage

      Agreed, and with this type of bomb threat, people reacting with hysteria don't understand first-principles: If a terrorist is going to do maximum damage, they will not publicly announce it so specifically beforehand to allow the bomb squad to defuse it and causing no damage at all.

      A semi-related incident [nbcsandiego.com] happened here in San Diego last Thanksgiving, right as many families were on the road to Thanksgiving dinner. Turns out some idiot called his sister(who was driving on the I-15) and pretended to be a terrorist, telling her that he was going to detonate a bomb he placed in her car. So of course she pulled over to the side of the road and flipped the fuck out and called police. Of course, any terrorist looking to do maximum damage wouldn't have announced it so specifically and putting his plot in jeopardy, but muh terr'ism!

      I was stuck in that traffic jam, and closing down even one piece of highway is catastrophic for any major city, because traffic gets shitted up a good 10-15 miles in all directions during peak hours. Sure, everybody blamed that idiot for the hoax, but the real culprit was post-9/11 alarmism.

      Its shit like that which reminds us that the terrorists are winning.

      • (Score: 2) by Dunbal on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:03AM

        by Dunbal (3515) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:03AM (#32168)

        "don't understand first-principles"

        Come on, you're dealing with minds that believe that saying the word "gun", writing the word "bomb" on a napkin, having a piece of gun-shaped jewelry or a picture of a gun on a T-shirt are credible threats and require said person be detained, arrested, or otherwise removed from the airport.

      • (Score: 1) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:06AM

        by FakeBeldin (3360) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:06AM (#32226) Journal

        If a terrorist is going to do maximum damage...
        Depends on the terrorist's goal (i.e. their definition of damage). If they want to kill people and destroy buildings, sure. If they want to terrorise the general public, they can nowadays achieve that by sending out a 140-character message. Far easier to achieve, and at least as effective.

        • (Score: 1) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:21AM

          by FakeBeldin (3360) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:21AM (#32228) Journal

          (apologies for replying to self)
          Doh, the rest of your post actually makes that point. Sorry for lazy reading skills.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:18AM

      by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:18AM (#32177)
      After we reach that point somebody will make a threat, carry it out, and the cycle will start all over again. Frankly I'd rather live in a society that has a better idea of what a prank is than to have threats taken less seriously. That girl was raised poorly.
      --
      🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
      • (Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:52AM

        by sjames (2882) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:52AM (#32182) Journal

        The problem is that the alarmists have the paranoia set so high that even innocent statements get taken as a threat. Boston was paralyzed by lite-brite. A transformers action figure gets the bomb squad called in. It seems that a loud sneeze makes them wet their pants.

        No amount of reasoning has gotten these bozos to turn it down. Crapflooding them until they panic themselves to death is the last resort, but we are at the last resort now.

        I don't want to approve of any of this, but I can't help being just a little sympathetic.

        • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:45AM

          by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:45AM (#32196)

          I don't disagree with you in the philosophical sense. The issue I have comes from asking myself the question: "Would I be willing to gamble the lives of people over a really lame threat?" I would love to say: "Hell, yeah! I have a brain, you can't pull one over on me." But the reality is I'm sure I wouldn't. I'm a coward. And there are a couple of reasons for this. First is that by the time I was 7 there were two things I knew not to do: Pull a fire alarm and use the word 'bomb' in an airport. My dad clarified both topics early on, plus Sesame Street gave me some visual support. I don't understand how a 14 year old brat gets it. So if I feel this way, how can I ask others to make the same judgment?

          Second, if our response is to stick our fingers in our ears and go LALALALALAALALA, why wouldn't they one day try detonating a lite-bright in Boston? All that has to happen is that people need to be reminded that the risk is there, and BAM, the over-sensitivity starts all over again. What I don't understand is how we can be less sensitive and actually *prevent* future threats from happening again. I mean, we already have the phrase: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you can't fool me again." :P In all seriousness, though, it is in our nature to make the deaths of others mean something. A fatal car accident, for example, will be investigated and we'll attempt to change the rules to prevent that loss from happening again. If we're not going to do that, we need an alternative that somehow leads us to the same result. I can't even imagine what that is, but I doubt it'll be easy to find. In the mean time: Shame on that girl, and shame on her parents.

          --
          🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
          • (Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:02AM

            by sjames (2882) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:02AM (#32218) Journal

            I once had the evil thought that the real way to get the litter picked up is to put a small bomb in an old McDonald's bag next to a bench. The number of things that could potentially hide a bomb are endless. The number that actually do hide a bomb are very few.

            All of those things have been there for a very long time. The panic over them is recent. For the decades I have been alive, 'authorities' wetting their pants over this stuff is genuinely quite recent. If they managed to consider an action figure glued to something a mere curiosity in the 60's-90's, they can (and should) again. None of this panic has yielded even one iota of additional safety,. No lives saved, no injuries prevented. The marathon bomb just proved that even with the paranoia dialed up to 'clinical', the threat remains. History shows that setting the paranoia to 'mild' or even 'none' does no worse.

            On the other hand, a number of innocent people have been harmed by the rampant paranoia in a direct way and many have seen their quality of life damaged bit by bit.

            It's interesting you mention auto accidents. Did you know that most transportation departments won't even consider making changes to an intersection until a minimum number of fatalities (10 or so). That's because a fatal collision can happen even at the safest intersection and they simply can't be in constant panic mode. They know that the vast majority of intersections will never see a problem. The alternative is having a turn lane, center barrier and traffic lights complete with turn arrow for every lane and a half country road.

            I can say with full confidence that I would NOT call an alert for a kid wearing a shirt with a picture of a gun on it, A guy with a spy thriller novel that has a picture of a bomb on it, a guy running up the down escalator to corral his toddler, etc, etc. If the name is on a list but it belongs to a 4 year old, I think I would assume that he is not, in fact, a dangerous terrorist. (all of those things have caused a panic).

            There are harder calls to make and not everyone is cut out to make those calls. Perhaps you're better suited for something else. I'm sure the people making the calls now aren't cut out for it.

            If I was a mad bomber, I would hide the bomb in a trash bag or a beat up old box, not in something unusual that might attract curiosity. If they REALLY want to make things safer, they should pick up all the litter so the bag or box will stand out as unusual. So far, that's what all terrorists seem to have chosen everywhere.

            Every time we panic over nothing, we hand the terrorists a victory. Every victory encourages them to continue.

          • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:04AM

            by rts008 (3001) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:04AM (#32224)

            IMHO, you both have good points, but if I had to chose between them, I would side with 'sjames'.

            My reason for this is:
            Actual occurrences are rare(in my mind like getting struck by lightning). To me, it's just not worth getting worked up over.

            Shame on that girl, and shame on her parents.

            I'll second that.

        • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:50AM

          by rts008 (3001) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @08:50AM (#32223)

          Well said, IMHO...I could not agree more.

          This country has lost it's backbone and balls.

          I remember back in the 1960's and 1970's we used to have betting pools about which flight would be hijacked by terrorists next.

          !974 I had to hurriedly catch a flight without time to change, and got to the airplane with my Buck Folding Hunter in it's pouch hanging from my belt.
          Security never flinched, just asked to measure the blade length, I handed it over, they measured it, said "Okay, good to go" and handed it back to me and I entered the plane.(at the time maximum allowed blade length was 4", and it was my understanding Buck made the blade 3 7/8" to pass this)

          We had Black Panthers, the PLA, and much more craziness going on back then, and did not have this level of hysteria about terrorists... just hysteria about 'commies', hippies, and drugs.

          Maybe we need more commies to end this 'war on terror' and resulting insanity.(that might even fix NASA's budget!) ;-)
          It makes me kinda miss the Cold War...I still remember my 'Duck-n-Cover' drills!

    • (Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:35AM

      by sjames (2882) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:35AM (#32181) Journal

      This may actually help to force at least something resembling maturity. While the prank tweet that set this off was a bit on the nose compared to the people who were arrested and punished because some id10t didn't understand slang (something about destroying the town), still. The overreactions haven't been stopped by people calling those responsible idiots, by protests of the foolish actions, by time allowing cooler heads to prevail, or any or the usual methods. Perhaps if the stream of alarms is loud and continuous the idiots will have perspective thrust upon them by exhaustion.

      I really hate that it's to this point, but I'm not so sure I disapprove of the terror crapflood.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:59PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:59PM (#32355)

      "when you give people a chain they can yank that will make someone dance like a fool, of course there are going to be people who yank it."

      I'm surprised its an easily tracked local kid. I expected this trend to break out over burner phones by relatives of marriage parties drone striked into oblivion. Imagine all of the middle east tweeting an airline, for example.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 16 2014, @10:05PM

      by frojack (1554) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @10:05PM (#32446) Journal

      Modern society's hyper-sensitivity to anything labeled terrorism has made us vulnerable to this sort of pranking. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened sooner - when you give people a chain they can yank that will make someone dance like a fool, of course there are going to be people who yank it. Until we as a society regain a sense of proportion on the issue, the immature are going to keep making us dance. Good for them, look where maturity has gotten us.

      Had mod points, decided to comment instead.

      The above is just so incredibly true that it is painful to realize how far this security theater has pushed us over the brink. Who would have thought that a few guys could have turned the country so quickly into a police state.

      This is a twist on the Streisand effect, people taking the liberty to do anything the government actively forbids. And its becoming more common and more forceful. The other day a thousand ranchers with rifles faced down the Bureau of Land Management, and did everything except make them surrender their pants.

      People are tiring of the whole paradigm. But not quickly enough [nbcsports.com] if you ask me.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:44AM

    by isostatic (365) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @02:44AM (#32145) Journal

    I grew up in the 80s and 90s, when American funded terrorists called the IRA attempted, and mostly failed, to attack British cities. The MO tended to be a phone call to a newspaper/charity/etc, where they gave warning they were going to blow somewhere up.

    Sometimes they didn't bother, or gave the wrong warning, and killed children, but most of the time the warnings led to the area being cleared before hand.

    No doubt there were hoax calls. I actually took one in 2004 working for a large british broadcaster which itself had been target of an IRA bomb a couple of years earlier.

    These genuine calls all had a code word, which meant that you could verify the call was from a genuine bad guy (TM), and ignore the hoaxes.

    Modern day "terrorists" (which tend to be lone home-grown nutters who manage to kill fewer people with their bombs than an average car crash) don't give warnings. Therefore any announcement that "I've got a bomb!", be it in tedious pointless security lines, or on tedious pointless social networks, should be ignored.

    If you did want to phone in a bomb threat, then you'd use a phone, not twatter.

    • (Score: 2) by evilviper on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:03AM

      by evilviper (1760) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:03AM (#32153) Homepage Journal

      Modern day "terrorists" (which tend to be lone home-grown nutters who manage to kill fewer people with their bombs than an average car crash) don't give warnings. Therefore any announcement that "I've got a bomb!", be it in tedious pointless security lines, or on tedious pointless social networks, should be ignored.

      Plenty of people/groups have used legitimate bomb threats, not just the IRA. Usually it's some form of extortion.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey's_Resort_Hote l_bombing [wikipedia.org]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco_bomb_campaign [wikipedia.org]

      http://www.news4jax.com/news/fla-man-charged-with- publix-chain-bomb-plot/24939894 [news4jax.com]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Douglas_Wells [wikipedia.org]

      You're free to ignore bomb threats, at your own peril, but it's incredibly irresponsible to tell OTHERS that they should risk their lives, when the threat actually has a low but decent probability of being a real danger.

      --
      Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
    • (Score: 1) by The Grim Reefer on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:11AM

      by The Grim Reefer (1451) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:11AM (#32157)

      I grew up in the 80s and 90s, when American funded terrorists called the IRA

      Let's be clear regarding this funding. It is not, nor was it by the government, or the general population. It was private funding from Irish-Americans. Muammar Gaddafi and funding from Libya was far more damaging. He sent the IRA surface-to-air missiles. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/northernire land/8425593/Libyan-arms-helped-the-IRA-to-wage-wa r.html [telegraph.co.uk]virtually every bomb constructed by the Provisional IRA and the groups that splintered off it has contained Semtex from a Libyan shipment unloaded at an Irish pier in 1986.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:33AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 16 2014, @03:33AM (#32165)

        Let's not let facts get in the way of a good story. Need to have that "bad America" bent to it to sound good, you know.

  • (Score: 1) by tomp on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:09AM

    by tomp (996) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:09AM (#32185)

    Do creditable threats now come in the form of 140-character tweets? I never would've guessed. What a brave new world.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by zim on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:54AM

    by zim (1251) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @05:54AM (#32199)
    There's no way this can turn out good.
    They think they're making some sort of statement. "Oh we just trollin. it's funny!"

    Really. How do you expect the airline to handle this. Drag each of them into the court systems?

    Or just go 'lol. we know this isn't real. You be trollin yo.'

    The authorities CAN'T do that. They have to treat every single tweet as a valid serious threat and send in the cops.
    Because the one time they don't respond. And something DOES happen to a plane and people die...

    The world would collectively jump on the company and destroy them.
    And the lawyers for everyone involved know it. They would be sued out of existence.

    We don't leave them any choices at all in how to respond.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by rts008 on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:27AM

      by rts008 (3001) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @09:27AM (#32230)

      We don't leave them any choices at all in how to respond.

      That is the root of the problem.

      But regardless, it was a pretty stupid thing to do.

      The only thing I can think of, is maybe she thought that 'American' Airlines could not get her in another country[1]...but that's reaching far out.
      Bomb threats have always(my lifetime) had serious consequences about everywhere, so I wonder how clueless you have to be for this.

      [1] she has not been paying attention to any news for several years...she's lucky she did not have to learn the 'DroneStrike Dodger' aka the 'Pakistani Quickstep Boogie'! ;-)

    • (Score: 2) by Dunbal on Wednesday April 16 2014, @01:44PM

      by Dunbal (3515) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @01:44PM (#32298)

      "They have to treat every single tweet as a valid serious threat and send in the cops."

      And that, my friends, is why bureaucracy is completely brainless. They "have" to. Why do they "have" to? They don't "have" to they just say they do. I guess thinking people would get bored with the job very quickly since there would be very little to actually do.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by zim on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:46PM

        by zim (1251) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @04:46PM (#32372)
        Lets say for just arguments sake they don't respond.
        "Oh thats on some social network. It's just some kid. We know it's bullshit."

        And now someone does make one of those threats and follow thru.

        What would the media do?

        They would crucify that company! Cunts like nancy grace would be screaming about them for a month demanding justice!

        Everyone involved would be facing time in court at least. Maybe time in jail. Maybe time in front of congress to explain why they didn't act. Large fines. Lawsuits from the victims familys. Stock price drop. Investigation of their entire operation.

        Pretty much a death sentence for a company.
        And yet. We blame them for being a 'brainless' bureaucracy...

        They can't win. The only thing they can do is what they currently do. Send in the cops and keep their company alive.
        • (Score: 2) by Dunbal on Wednesday April 16 2014, @07:41PM

          by Dunbal (3515) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @07:41PM (#32407)

          "And now someone does make one of those threats and follow thru."

          But they won't. You stop right there. Everything else is BS. Common sense is apparently not common at all. The "I'll just cover my ass" case makes for a world in which, well, the world we have now - where everyone suspects everyone else, no one is allowed anything, everything is shocking, etc. Certainly a stupid tweet does not have to make international news. The press is going to be ridiculous either way because today's press IS ridiculous.

  • (Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday April 16 2014, @11:09AM

    by Rivenaleem (3400) on Wednesday April 16 2014, @11:09AM (#32248)

    I thought she blocked the FBI? And anyway, it was a joke, and her friend did it. Take her IP.