Social media should really come with a warning label for some people and brands. Warning: you are now posting something on the World Wide Web. No matter your intention, you are now granting the world access to your thoughts, photos and videos. You may delete the post; however, there’s a possibility that the post (and its ramifications) will never go away. Post wisely.
As you might assume, this Trending News Monday, we’re hitting on three different stories that made splashes on social media over the weekend. As implied above, some individuals and brands didn’t use much discretion while posting and are having to pay the consequences.
Terrorism Isn’t a Joke
Sunday, a 14-year-old girl from the Netherlands decided to prank American Airlines with an @mention. In the tweet, the teenager whose real name is Sarah claimed she was a part of Al- Qaeda and that something “really big” was going to happen on June 1. The tweet (featured below) has since been deleted from her account.
Sarah@QueenDemetriax: @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 10:37 AM – 13 Apr 14
Obviously, American Airlines (which had two planes hijacked by Al-Qaeda members during the 9/11 terrorists attacks), took the threat seriously. The airlines replied to Sarah’s tweet, stating, “Sarah, we take these treats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI.”
The Dutch teenager then sent a series of bizarre Tweets; in some, she tried to reason with American Airlines and defend her joke, and in others, she joked about wanting to be “Demi Lovato famous” not “Osama bin Laden famous” and having something interesting to say at school on Monday. At no time, unfortunately, did she address or even seem to realize the consequences of her threat. Today, the Rotterdam Police tweeted that they have arrested the 14-year-old Dutch girl and will continue the investigation, but they havn’t released any other information.
While the tweet is alarming on several levels, the real lesson to be learned from this story is that what happens on social media can have real life consequences. No matter if the tweeter is a “fan girl” who changes her name or doesn’t even use a real name, what a person says and post can follow him or her off the web and into the real world. (Not posting threats and making terrorism into a joke is common sense). As brought up in the Washington Post, the airlines and authorities have to follow up on such threats, even when there’s a great chance that there’s no actual threat, but doing so means that personnel have to switch their attention from potential real threats to deal with this phony threat.
Escalated Twitter Conversation Takes Inappropriate Turn
After an unhappy traveler tweeted about a bad flight with US Airways, the airlines replied to the traveler via Twitter and began a conversation–one the whole world could potentially see. While the initial tweets were not out of the ordinary (complaint, apology, apology not accepted), the conversation hit controversy when US Airways sent a nightmarish tweet: a pornographic photo.
While the airlines has apologized for sending out the x-rated photo and are investigating the issue, the damage, so-to-speak, has been done. The response on Twitter was immediate and unapproving. The airlines hasn’t released any other information about the incident, but US Airways joins a handful of other brands who’ve had to learn hard lessons in managing social media accounts.
MTV Movie Awards
With Conan’s cameo record (which isn’t very story-driven, but is still pretty epic), Eminem and Rihanna’s first live “Monster” performance (which is nothing like Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus’s VMA performance) and all things the MTV movie awards are known for (wacky awards and celebrities having fun), MTV dominated conversations on social media last night. Although Conan O’brien didn’t crash Twitter as Ellen DeGeneres did during the Oscars, the show was a great success. In case you want to enter the conversation but missed the awards or you want to have another look, MTV put together a great list of the MTV Movie Awards most talked about moments. And, for the record, that was not Seth Rogan’s real mom.
Cover Photo Source: anderm / Shutterstock.com
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Cassandra-Bremer-Our-Space-Photo-e1402061863316.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Cassandra is a Content Manager and Developer at SJG. She earned her BA from Fontbonne University in 2011. Outside the office, she enjoys an active, healthy and well-rounded lifestyle including reading, writing, running, golfing, watching films, listening to music, taking photographs, and consuming media and social media.[/author_info] [/author]