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Hi everyone I was denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA over the last 48 hours because of my reporting on the Columbia student protests I arrived back in Melbourne hours ago and had my phone handed back to me upon landing

@qantas-official.bsky.social held onto the phone for the duration of the flight at the request of the Trump administration

15 hour flight + 12 hour detention + 15 hour flight = one of the harder experiences of my life I had it easy, one woman had been in that detention room 4 days when I arrived, she’s still there

- They were waiting for me when I got off the plane - They knew (or it felt like they knew) everything about me - I had cleaned up my online presence expecting ad hoc digital sweeps; I was not prepared for their sophistication - Sophistication almost certainly facilitated by Palantir

If you are deleting social media ~48 before your flight to the US, *it is already too late.*

- My phone contents were immediately downloaded, on threat of deportation - In retrospect I should have denied search and accepted immediate deportation; in general I was too compliant, too trusting, too hopeful