Bad Jokes Will Be Punished

No complex technological tools were required to catch Justin Carter red-handed. His apparent plan for a bloody attack didn’t have to be intercepted by intelligence agencies. The 18-year-old American revealed it himself on a public Facebook page. The nonsense written by Carter would have certainly made clear to any reader that this was just a teenager choosing his words badly. But the joke was misunderstood and led to several months’ imprisonment for Carter.

Sarcasm and irony can lead to misunderstandings over social networks — and overreactions by authorities. Justin Carter’s case is just one example of many. Carter’s parents have given countless interviews in the meantime and started a petition on the campaign site change.org to expose the absurdity of what their son has been charged with. “Release my son Justin Carter — Being prosecuted for a Facebook comment,” his mother titled it. Their petition has already received 135,000 signatures.

According to the parent’s description, it all started with a debate between computer gamers. Justin Carter and another user started to quarrel on the website for online fantasy role-playing game League of Legends. The quarrel then moved to Facebook, where Carter’s opponent said, “Oh you’re insane, you’re crazy, you’re messed up in the head,” to which Carter replied, “Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still-beating hearts.”

Too Much Irony

He obviously realized himself very quickly that that was too drastic. He followed it up with a “LOL” and “JK,” abbreviations for “laughing out loud” and “just kidding.” But a Facebook user in Canada was worried by this. She Googled Carter’s name and found an address in Texas — near a primary school. As a result she alerted Texan authorities.

In March Carter was arrested. One month passed before he was asked if the accusations were a terrorist threat. “Justin’s a good kid. He wouldn’t hurt anyone, let alone a child,” his mother stated on change.org. His comment was certainly distasteful, but none of his friends and family would have taken it seriously.

His parents couldn’t raise the bail money, amounting to half a million dollars, until a donor was found at the end of last week. “Justin and his family are ecstatic about his release and are thankful beyond all measures to the anonymous Samaritan, who paid his bail money,” wrote the boy’s lawyer.* But although he’s now free, the court case and conviction for a long prison term are still looming over him, warns his mother, Jennifer Carter.

*Editor’s Note: Although this quote is accurately translated, the original could not be sourced.