British man arrested over flight bomb hoax even though private and encrypted

And he was acquitted!

Yay for Spanish courts allowing people to joke among themselves in whatever way they are comfortable with. It seems like UK or US courts would not have taken the same stance.

This is another reason actual e2e encryption is desirable, which, obviously, Snapchat does not provide (or it does pre-scanning on the client, but the effect is the same).

1984 springs to mind.

The news headline is inaccurate. The message was not a hoax. It was a joke. No deception was involved. The recipients of the message are in fact the man’s friends who boarded the same plane with him.

> "... he said he had made the joke in a private Snapchat group ..."

> "A key question in the case was how the message got out, considering Snapchat is an encrypted app."

This is, indeed, the key question.

> In the judge's resolution ... it was said that the message, "for unknown reasons, was captured by the security mechanisms of England when the plane was flying over French airspace".