Randomly generated tweet by bot prompts investigation by Dutch police

Police investigate after bot created by web developer Jeffry van der Goot tweets 'I seriously want to kill people'

When Twitter user @jeffrybooks tweeted saying "I seriously want to kill people" at a fashion and cosmetics convention happening at Amsterdam, the Dutch police took the threat seriously.

Jeffry van der Goot, a 28-year-old web developer who created the account, received a visit from the police in short order. The only problem was that Van der Goot - who is non-binary and goes by "they" - hadn't written the tweet. Instead, Van der Goot had handed the Twitter account over to "jeff_ebooks", a bot they created which could automatically send tweets and hold conversations as an eerie simulacrum of themselves. It was jeff_ebooks who had sent the threat, and it was its creator who was being held liable.

Obviously they're automated and what they say is just based on the algorithm and the corpus, but like. Police involvment is... scary

Of course since I don't have any legal knowledge I don't know who is/should be held responsible (if anyone) but like. kinda scared right now

So yeah, hope it never happens again.