Student Twitters Himself Out of Jail



UC Berkeley graduate student James Karl Buck, who was in Egypt covering an anti-government protest when he was arrested, helped free himself with … twitter!

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. "Arrested."

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt — the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier — were alerted that he was being held.

Naturally, when he was released, James sent another one-word twitter: "Free"

CNN Article by Mallory Simon: Link (Photo: James Karl Buck)


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Posted on April 26, 2008 at 11:28 am by Alex
Category: Politics, Science & Tech



12 Comments to "Student Twitters Himself Out of Jail"

  • bean
    April 26th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    I have the urge to make a ‘twit’ joke here, but don’t know which one to go with. This clearly European/American guy thought he could go to an anti-government protest in a country known for having connections to radical religious terrorist groups and not be arrested?

  • Sheldon
    April 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    That’s great. All of my friends Twitter and they’re looking for a way to explain why it’s so great.

  • Lore
    April 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    The power of technology.

  • Billy
    April 26th, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    He looks like a crim to me!!!

  • Tim
    April 26th, 2008 at 7:43 pm

    It’s great seeing journalists go to prison, get their body parts cut off, or just get kidnapped for several years. It does my heart good to see the scourge of the earth get their just rewards.

  • clinton robert labombard
    April 26th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

    And now the Egyptians, thanks to the internet, know all about that trick. Yay technology.

  • Alannah
    April 26th, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    I’m glad this guys out of jail, but he’s never going to feel good about himself until he finds out what happened to the translator. Being an American helped him just as much as Twitter did in this situation.

  • Justin
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:20 am

    Yeah I really feel for the translator. I hope they find where he went.

  • otterly
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:35 am

    With a headline like “Student Twitters Himself Out of Jail” I am sorely disappointed in the post. I expected something naughty. Pffft

  • bag of beans
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:32 am

    Wow, gee, look what we have here.. following a rather interesting news story about someone’s twitter account and something about leaked chats, now we have a positive, (puts hand to center of chest) happy twitter related story. (awwww) So I guess we can all forget about the previous story, huh?

    (shakes head and urinates on carpet)

  • Thomas
    April 27th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Hmm… twitter… useful…? Can’t… wrap brain.. around… ahhh!! It hurts!

  • Algonkin
    April 28th, 2008 at 6:42 am

    Now that’s what I call a Neat story :)

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