[estevez]

Let me play devil's advocate here and note that twitter has been used as a communication platform by what the US Gov't consider (again, I take no position on the merits) terrorist organizations,[1] and that monitoring such a public forum is at least somewhat legitimate.

The offending party probably shouldn't have been deported, but that's another matter.

[1]: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/al-shabaab-twitter_...

[phillmv]

Sure.

It's still absurd to deny them entry. Rude white kids from England aren't exactly a threat, and a cursory glance at their background would probably confirm that.

[mikeash]

Monitoring a public forum is absolutely legitimate. I've seen people grumble about the potential monitoring of twitter, but not really on basic principles of censorship, but rather just because it's going to be impractical, wasteful, etc.

What has most people upset is not the monitoring itself, but the use of the monitoring for such stupid things. If you set up a monitoring system that does nothing but hassle and punish a million false positives, that's no good.