Going to America? Watch your Twitter Ps and Qs
Distillery trips are one of the best perks of working in the bar trade, especially ones to far-flung places you might never normally visit ‘in real life’.
However, should you be lucky enough to blag a trip to one of America’s many bourbon distilleries, think twice before you use typical bartender language to show your excitement on Twitter.
Leigh Van Bryan, a 26 year old bar manager posted the message “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America” just before embarking on said trip, only to be stopped at the border by Homeland Security sent back to the UK for “Posting statements in a public forum which could be construed as threatening”.
Anyone in the trade will recognise this as a statement of intent to ‘get on it’, however America’s men in black suits didn’t, and not only did Van Bryan miss out on an expensive holiday, he is no doubt now on some sort of watch list that will make it very difficult to travel in the future.
How did Homeland Security know about the Tweet? We can’t say for sure, but the FBI’s new Social Media Scraper might have something to do with it.