Don't mess with American Airlines: Dutch teen who posted terror joke tweet arrested

A Dutch teen involved in an airline terror hoax that earned her more than 20,000 followers within 12 hours was arrested on Monday, Rotterdam police confirmed. She decided to tweet a terror hoax as a joke to the airline earlier and what followed was trouble.

By: VISHAKHA SAXENA
| Updated on: Apr 15 2014, 01:58 IST
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A Dutch teen involved in an airline terror hoax that earned her more than 20,000 followers within 12 hours was arrested on Monday, Rotterdam police confirmed. 'Dutch girl (14) from Rotterdam arrested after American Airlines threat. Investigation continues,' they tweeted.

The teen decided to tweet a terror hoax as a joke to the airline earlier and what followed was trouble, ridicule, chaos and a meltdown.

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'@AmericanAir hello my name's Ibrahim I'm from Afghanistan. I'm part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I'm gonna do something really big, bye (sic)'.

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A young twitter user, @QueenDemetriax_, on Sunday found herself grappling as reactions filled with hate and rage began flowing in after American Airlines responded to her seemingly hoax threat. 'Sarah (name in description of the Twitter handle), we take these threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI,' the airline tweeted back.

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The joke soon turned into a nightmare for the Twitter user, who later claimed to be just 14 years old. The hoax tweet and the reply from the airline went viral on the internet within minutes, as Sarah's post was retweeted more than 10,000 times.

Though Sarah, who goes by only first name in her Twitter bio, and American Airlines eventually deleted their tweets — AA within an hour — their screenshots are still doing rounds on the internet.

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'But guys I have a lawyer named Demi Lovato'

Following the airline's response, Sarah's followers witnessed her meltdown as she tried to explain to the airline that she had cracked a harmless joke. This, however, did not deter her from cracking occasional jokes — though riddled with apparent duress.

'I always wanted to be famous, but I meant like Demi Lovato famous, not Osama bin laden famous" she tweeted at one point.

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She added the notorious tweet to her bio and changed her name to 'Ibrahim'. The 14-year-old also made repeated mentions of her fast growing followers on Twitter — she got 20,000 of them within nearly 12 hours.

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The Demi Lovato fan is being been widely ridiculed and crticised for her misplaced joke.

Some users, however, have defended her move too.

While her Twitter account faced multiple suspensions, Sarah on Monday expressed anger over the jokes and hate messages coming her way.

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First Published Date: 14 Apr, 17:32 IST
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