About

#FreeLorde is a satirical hashtag spread after New Zealand announced it was considering a policy that issued fines to people who dropped out of school or their parents. Pop singer Lorde, who dropped out of school at age 13, would hypothetically be affected by this policy and would be fined $3000. This led people to joke that Lorde was going to prison, and posted joke well wishes to the singer.

Origin

On October 3rd, New Zealand's National Party announced they were considering a policy that would fine parents of students who dropped out of school before the age of 16.^[1] In an article critical of the policy, Newshub.co.nz^[2] compiled a list of people who would be forced to pay the fine, which included Lorde. They wrote:

If that's not enough for National to reconsider, perhaps knowing about New Zealand's pop princess Lorde would stop this policy from getting the Green Light. After hitting the big time Lorde decided not to return to Takapuna Grammar to finish year 13, so along with picking up two Grammys, Lorde would have collected a $3000 fine.

On October 7th, Twitter user @bravahoe^[3] tweeted saying Lorde is going to jail because she didn't pay the fine (shown below).

Spread

The same day, Lorde fan account @L3Updates posted saying there was a rumor that Lorde was going to jail (shown below, left). Twitter user @ThisIsAdham wrote, "Imagine wanting to imprison an artist who made NZ so famous and well known for a having a talented 16 year old girl, Lorde who her concerts were being sold in minutes and Royals is a #1 hit and changed the pop music… we gotta save Lorde till we die #FreeLORDE" (shown below, right).

Others created jokes with more understanding that Lorde was not going to prison. For example, Twitter user @Eman031301 posted a SpongeBob Squarepants clip about the drama, gaining over 240 retweets and 1,200 likes (shown below, left). User @oliviacardinale tweeted a picture of herself with Lorde in which the singer was behind a chain-link fence, saying she was visiting Lorde in jail (shown below, right). Jokes were covered by Daily Dot.^[4]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References