Twitter user fined for making airline terror threat

Twitter user fined for making airline terror threat

A Twitter user who tweeted false terror threats has been ordered to pay Ryanair more than AU$360,000. That’ll teach him.

Brian Lake went under the alias of @GunneXgod on Twitter, to tweet a 130 character post to Ryanair claiming he was about to launch a terror attack, hoping to remain anonymous.

“Hello @Ryanair” the tweet began.

You have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes. Be ready.” 

According to The Independent, Ryanair were able to track down Pennsylvanian resident Bryan Lake after securing subpoenas from Twitter.

His tweet was found to be false, and subsequently, Ryanair began proceedings for extortion and defamation against Lake.

The airline claimed that Lake’s tweet was with “specific intent of harming Ryanair’s business and its reputation of providing high-quality, reliable, low-cost goods and services in the commercial airline industry”.

Lake was ordered by a US District Court to pay the equivalent of AU$2830 for each of the 130 characters in his tweet, which amounted to a total of AU$366,154. 

“We welcome this US District Court ruling,” Ryanair’s Robin Kiely told The Independent.  

“The safety of our customers, people and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not allow anyone to impugn, threaten or undermine our 32-year unblemished safety record and will pursue any ‘anonymous’ social media offenders through the courts.” 

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