Big Brother Is Watching, Man Arrested Over Joke Text
A man was arrested and held in a police cell for 24 hours in northern France on the strength of a single ‘joke’ text message about sabotaging a train.
Privacy campaigners argue that the monitoring of personal correspondence by the authorities is an example of the ‘Big Brother’ society which is increasingly threatening individual freedom in countries including Britain.
Last month in Abbeville, in the Somme region of France, a 29-year-old referred to by his first name of Stephane received an SMS saying ‘Do you know how to derail a train?’
The woodworker had no previous convictions or links to radical groups, and had never even been spoken to by the police before.
Stephane thought nothing of the text, saying it was ‘joke correspondence’ from a friend, but a few hours later he was arrested.
Detectives said his mobile provider had passed on details of the message and so instigated a terror alert, saying Stephane should have called the police as soon as he received the message.
Stephane, who was released without charge following his arrest on April 16th, said : ‘It was all profoundly shocking. I really hope that a train isn’t de-railed in coming weeks.’ Britain’s information watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, has frequently called for tighter regulation on information being handed over to the authorities by phone companies.
Posted on May 4, 2009 | Filed Under Life
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