Activist charged with felony after giving border agent "duress code" that wiped his phone
The government says destroying his own data during an airport interrogation was illegal. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/activist-charged-with-felony-after-giving-border-agent-duress-code-that-wiped-his-phone/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Comments (7)
@arstechnica I doubt that a sane and sensible federal court would agree that that's any kind of crime, even if federal law says so. Generally, 4A provisions may allow them to require you to demonstrate that a device is what you say it is, by turning it on, so that they can be assured it's not a bomb. That's reasonable, and should not offend 4A provisions. But the CONTENT of a proven phone is almost certainly guarded under 4A, and should require a warrant. Congress cannot amend Amendments.
@arstechnica That's exactly what we're supposed to do to protect ourselves when traveling through problematic authoritarian ports like China, Russia or the USA.
The only alternative is that nobody ever travels to these places.
@arstechnica
If they didn't have a warrant.....
@arstechnica If one cannot exercise one's #5A then the #USA is a #fascist #PoliceState!
Anyone treating that place any better than #Russia, "P.R." #China or #NorthKorea is just dellusional.
- If it didn't happen to a #US #citizen they would've either deported & #NoFlyList|ed, jailed indefinitely or tortured & forcibly disappeared said person instead.
@arstechnica ah white folk finding out now what it is like for coloured folks to travel to any white country. Not sure why anyone who can afford to travel can't afford to spend a little more to get a cheap blank phone to travel with or backup/wipe/restore before going through so border agents can go to town looking through a blank phones.
@arstechnica He didn't delete anything, the agent did that.
Maybe dipshits like that shouldn't be running the security operations.
@arstechnica but isn't that a couple human rights and even a few amendments? (5th)