18-Year-Old Cleared After Encrypted Snapchat Joke Led To F-18s and Arrest

Slashdot reader Bruce66423 shared this report from the BBC:

A Spanish court has cleared a British man of public disorder, after he joked to friends about blowing up a flight from London Gatwick to Menorca.

Aditya Verma admitted he told friends in July 2022: 'On my way to blow up the plane. I'm a member of the Taliban.' But he said he had made the joke in a private Snapchat group and never intended to 'cause public distress'... The message he sent to friends, before boarding the plane, went on to be picked up by UK security services. They then flagged it to Spanish authorities while the easyJet plane was still in the air.

Two Spanish F-18 fighter jets were sent to flank the aircraft. One followed the plane until it landed at Menorca, where the plane was searched. Mr Verma, who was 18 at the time, was arrested and held in a Spanish police cell for two days. He was later released on bail... If he had been found guilty, the university student faced a fine of up to €22,500 (£19,300 or $20,967) and a further €95,000 (£81,204 or $103,200) in expenses to cover the cost of the jets being scrambled.

But how did his message first get from the encrypted app to the UK security services?
One theory, raised in the trial, was that it could have been intercepted via Gatwick's Wi-Fi network. But a spokesperson for the airport told BBC News that its network 'does not have that capability'... A spokesperson for Snapchat said the social media platform would not 'comment on what's happened in this individual case'.

richi (Slashdot reader #74,551) thinks it's obvious what happened: SnapChat's own web site says they scan messages for threats and passes them on to the authorities. ('We also work to proactively escalate to law enforcement any content appearing to involve imminent threats to life, such as...bomb threats....'

'In the case of emergency disclosure requests from law enforcement, our 24/7 team usually responds within 30 minutes.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.