Twitter Users: FBI Says Everything You Retweet Can Be Used as Evidence in Criminal Investigations [+video]

With social media becoming so ubiquitous so quickly, it can be difficult to figure out what online silliness is fleeting and what can have real-world consequences. When it comes to Twitter, it seems it’s not just what you write that you have to worry about.

In the trial of 22-year-old Ali Saleh of Queens, the FBI is using his retweets of pro Islamic State messages against him.

“The FBI has been using retweets as evidence against Twitter-happy ISIS wannabes in other cases, as well. This summer a 17-year-old Virginia resident was arrested after regularly retweeting fawning statements about ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. So this is a tactic,” Kate Knibbs from Gizmodo writes. In Mississippi, two people were arrested for attempting to go to Syria to join the terror group again citing Twitter as evidence.

This is very troubling, because the implication is that, if convicted, this will establish a precedent that says what you share on social media can, in fact, be used against you. It also raises some pretty serious questions. (Read more from “Twitter Users: FBI Says Everything You Retweet Can Be Used as Evidence in Criminal Investigations” HERE)

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