Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

British Woman Applying Online To Travel To U.S. Accidentally Says She's A Terrorist 😳

Um... oops.

Mandie Stevenson's story is a perfect example of why it's important to read everything carefully when filling out forms online. Yes, we know they can be mindnumbing and it's incredibly easy to auto-pilot your way through clicking. Doing that, though, might just lead you to accidentally confessing to being a terrorist who plans to commit genocide.


Yes, it sounds crazy. But it's happened.

Mandie was planning a trip to the United States from her native country of Scotland. The 29-year-old was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer three years ago and was planning her trip to New York City as part of her bucket list. UK citizens can use an online form called ESTA to waive their need for a full travel Visa. Mandie filled the form out on her work computer. One of the yes or no questions on the form reads:

"Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?"

Somehow, Mandie managed to click yes to that question and didn't notice when she hit the confirmation page. She quickly scrolled to the bottom to click that she was confirming all of her answers, and just like that , she managed to inform the US government that she was a terrorist.

Non-Terrorist Mandie was like:

media0.giphy.com


Unfortunately for Mandie, this isn't exactly an easy thing to fix. To take care of the issue, she had to travel over 400 miles to the US embassy in London and sit through multiple interviews. Eventually she was cleared to travel, but not in time to make her original trip. In the end, her mistake cost her over a thousand dollars to fix.

People have been pretty vocal about their dislike for that question - not because terrorism isn't real, but because no real terrorist is going to click "yes" on an online form. Travel editor for The Independent, Steven Calder, has criticized the entire process.

Nobody who was engaged in terrorism, espionage or genocide would ever tick 'yes'. I don't imagine that anybody has ever deliberately ticked this box, but once you are on that list you are never going to get off it. America is completely unforgiving. If that box gets ticked for whatever reason, immediately it's as though the alarms go off, the shutters go down and you are into a spiral of despair.


Mandie certainly hit that spiral of despair pretty hard, telling the BBC that postponing the trip was an issue because of her health. 

I live in 12-weekly cycles because I get scanned every 12 weeks. I book my holidays in very specific times and this New York trip was going to be before I get another set of scan results, so I was really looking forward to it. It was stress that I didn't need. I thought because it was a genuine error it would be quite an easy fix but I was quite wrong.


Twitter pretty much agrees the question is just setting people up for failure.










Soooo yeah; sometimes online forms have questions that make no sense. That's just reality. Be careful. read it all, and double check your confirmation pages people!


H/T: Mashable, BBC, Twitter

More from

Screenshots from Dove's ad featuring transgender women
Dove

'One Million Moms' Calls For Dove Boycott Over Hair Care Ad Featuring Trans Woman

The vehemently transphobic conservative group One Million Moms (OMM)—an arm of the Christian fundamentalist nonprofit American Family Association (AFA)—called for a boycott of Dove products after the company featured a transgender woman in an advertisement for their Damage Therapy Intensive Repair Conditioner.

The ad garnered attention after it was shared by the social media account Libs of TikTok—run by the anti-LGBTQ+ conservative Chaya Raichik—which described the ad as an example of "another woke company trying to erase women."

Keep ReadingShow less
Alyssa Milano; Julian McMahon
Michael Kovac/Elton John AIDS Foundation/Getty Images; Marcus Ingram/The Surfer/Getty Images

Alyssa Milano Shares Poignant Tribute To 'TV Husband' Julian McMahon After His Death At 56

Actor Julian McMahon lost his battle with cancer at the age of 56 earlier this week, and to say that the Charmed, Nip/Tuck, and Fantastic Four actor touched many lives would be an understatement.

When the news of McMahon's passing went public, his Charmed costar and "TV wife" Alyssa Milano came forward and expressed her sadness and condolences on Instagram. The pair were a favorite couple on Charmed, and it was clear from her post that their care for each other extended beyond the screen.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Who Slept With Their Best Friend Describe The Aftermath

When two people have a deep and meaningful friendship, the question might eventually come up of whether or not they could be more. Agreeing that their friendship might deserve more, they might try to date or at least explore physical intimacy.

But crossing that line carries with it consequences, and it's only once the pair crosses that line that they'll find out if crossing it was good or bad.

Keep ReadingShow less
child writing on chalkboard
Leonardo Toshiro Okubo on Unsplash

Bilingual People Explain Which Words They're Surprised Don't Exist In English

According to one report, approximately 3.3 billion people worldwide—43 % of the population—are multilingual, meaning they speak at least two languages. According to the last Census, 21.6% of people in the United States speak more than one language, while in the United Kingdom, the number is 36%.

More multilingual people speak English as a second language than English speakers who have learned another language besides English. Worldwide, people who learned English as a first language rate among the lowest in multilingual rates.

Keep ReadingShow less
Andrew Garfield at the 2025 Glastonbury Festival
Harry Durrant/Getty Images

Andrew Garfield meets fan with wild tweet!

American actor Andrew Garfield had a funny yet awkward reunion with a fan from a viral “Thirst Tweet” featured on Buzzfeed Celeb.

The Thirst Tweet compilation shows celebrities reading a collection of scandalous tweets from fans commenting on their looks, attractiveness, and sex appeal. Blushing stars include James McAvoy, Renee Rapp, Keanu Reeves, Anthony Mackie, and more recently, Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, as they promote F1 the Movie that was released in theaters last week.

Keep ReadingShow less