10 People Arrested for Internet Jokes

1.

Justin Carter was only arguing and joking around with friends on Facebook over a video game when he stated: "I'm fucked in the head...I'ma SHOOT UP A KINDERGARTEN AND WATCH THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT RAIN DOWN..." But one woman who saw this didn't like it, and called the police. Justin was arrested on Valentine's Day and held on $500,000 bail, a price his attorney claimed he had never once seen even for murderers and rapists. His father created a Change.org petition to free him, and luckily a donor paid Justin's bail. Even so, defense attorneys claim police deliberately misquoted comments and lied via warrant; claiming they matched his profile pic to his driver's license - while Justin has no driver's license.

2.

In 2010 bad weather cancelled flights from Doncaster Airport and Paul Chambers got pissed. After tweeting sarcastically he'd blow up the airport, he became the first in the UK to be arrested under the "Terrorism Act". He was then banned from the airport for life. What's worse is that authorities interviewing Chambers had no clue what Twitter was, confiscated all his electronics, and placed him on bail. It took over two years for judges to throw the case out.

3.

Zhai Xiaobing is a Beijing blogger who threatened the great and powerful government of China by posting a joke referencing the film "Final Destination". Yep, you heard that right. Even while China's government blocks Twitter from use by its citizens, they still monitor such sites around the clock, in case people like Zhai post something like this: "The Great Hall of the People suddenly collapses, only 7 of the 2,000 people attending the meeting survive, yet each dies one-by-one in bizarre fashion!! Is it God's game or Death's wrath? Shocking debut on November 8 in theaters worldwide!!" For this "post containing false information being placed on the internet", Zhai was arrested and placed in a detention center. It was only when friends noticed Zhai went radio silent that they went to check on him and simply found him and his laptop gone. A petition is going around, but anything could have happened to Zhai by now. Just a few years ago a human rights activist spent a year in a labor camp for posting a single tweet, by circumventing the country's ban on sites like Twitter - same as Zhai has.

4.

Despite the fact this girl was 14 years old and pleaded with AmericanAir to disregard her joke tweet due to the fact she was definitely not a terrorist, she was still arrested. Yet so many followers jumped on her QueenDemetriax_ feed she considered selling the account, with bids beginning at $500. Ultimately the account was deleted, but tons of threats similar to hers were likewise sent right to AmericanAir.

5.

Leigh van Bryan and Emily Bunting were tourists visiting Los Angeles, enjoying the sights before tweeting excitedly they were "destroying" America and wanted to "dig Marilyn Monroe up!". Despite the fact their tweets were actually Family Guy tv show references, armed authorities searched van Bryan's bags for shovels and weapons, believing two British kids would somehow be able to dig up the body of Marilyn Monroe. Suspiciously, a full body search was also administered to Bunting but not van Bryan, before both were placed in the same prison cell only to be denied a further stay in the U.S. anyway.

6.

Over a reference to a P!nk song, an Australian teenager, who tweeted: "Pink I'm ready with my Bomb. Time to blow up #RodLaverArena Bitch", was ousted from a concert containing over 1,000 fans. Naturally, authorities did not know - or care - that the context of the tweet was in direct reference to a song that didn't even belong to him, and used his profile pic to find him in the crowd at the arena. Witnesses attest to over 20 guards surrounding this boy, who was then arrested.

7.

Yet another teenager managed to incur legal wrath over a few words, this time Scottish 19-year-old Ross Loraine. After a garbage truck crash in Glasgow which killed 6, Loraine joked about how it was "probably the most trash it's picked up in one day". Of course, people got offended, so he ended up arrested.

8.

Being busted in on for joking via social media is a paranoiac matter nowadays. In October 2012, after Josh Pillault was told to "kill himself", he replied with a sarcastic quip and threat about the Columbine High School massacre, to which the first individual typed "Knock Knock", as though he knew what would happen. Apparently trying to drive someone to suicide is just fine. Making jokes about those already dead, though? That netted Pillault with a police raid on his family home, an immediate arrest, over 9 MONTHS in jail, and a subsequent 6 YEAR prison sentence. So unbelievably ridiculous an outcome, his parents, multiple doctors, specialists, and teachers have proposed that they be allowed to testify on his behalf.

9.

In 2007, Wisconsin teacher James Buss was arrested due to his blog comment praising the shooters of the Columbine High School massacre. It was clearly meant as sarcasm, as Buss was a teacher himself and past president of a teacher's union, so making jokes on how Harris and Klebold were just in their treatment of school staff was probably not meant seriously. He was supposed to be charged with "disorderly conduct" and "unlawful use of computerized comm systems" but ultimately was released on $350 bail after just an hour.

10.

Cameron D'Ambrosio was just another typical wannabe rapper, really doing or saying nothing different than rich, established rappers already do. Except for some reason, the amateur rap lyrics of an 18-year-old were deemed so horrible he was immediately arrested, then held without bail until a grand jury hearing. Furthermore, prosecutors were pushing to charge the kid with planning to make a bomb or carry out a hijacking, offenses which could mean up to 20 years in prison. Regardless of what your stance on aspiring teenage rap stars is, one thing's for certain: police failing to mention even once that D'Ambrosio's posts were lyrics, along with the use of "evidence" that includes a fight with a sister at 11 years old, point to a serious injustice. Fortunately, the grand jury agreed. D'Ambrosio was not indicted.