After being silent on Twitter since 2014, the admin of the Twitter account @AnimeJokes returned to the site on June 8 alleging that they had been incarcerated for seven years for torrenting—or peer-to-peer, decentralized file-sharing—and resisting arrest.
The admin, whose bio advertises their account as “fun and clean anime humor for the enjoyment of you and all your anime friends,” revealed that using a virtual private network (VPN), or encrypting a public network to make it private, might have helped them avoid arrest and subsequent incarceration.
Many of @AnimeJokes’ 16,000 followers reacted in shock to the announcement and responded with memes, anime references, and, of course, references to a similar, infamous tweet from the now-defunct @LegitTayUpdates.
To manage the replies and messages they received, @AnimeJokes tweeted that they appreciated the “warm welcome back” to Twitter that they received, were staying with their father, and would answer further questions about their incarceration at a later date.
In the days since their return, @AnimeJokes tweeted about how anime and Twitter have changed since they’ve been gone, shared anime quotes, and asked for suggestions for up-to-date anime meme websites.
Shortly prior to their time in jail, @AnimeJokes posted tweets about a run-in with the law in 2014, which many are calling foreshadowing.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @AnimeJokes.
This story has been updated.
