Lorde is not in jail. We feel it’s important to make this clear up front before you, like so many others, begin to sob quietly into your hands wondering what happened to the New Zealand pop star in the time since she was last in the public eye. No, as often as you may see #FreeLORDE on social media today and in the days to come, Lorde is, for now at the very least, neither in jail or in any immediate danger of being arrested.
That’s the good news. The bad news, however, is that people are talking about Lorde being in jail because New Zealand’s opposition party has considered a policy that would fine the parents of those who, like Lorde, stopped attending school before the age of 16 without lining up a job or other form of education. As reported by The Guardian’s Eleanor Ainge Roy, this hasn’t happened and is generally an idea that’s been heavily criticized. Of course, it would probably work out just fine for Lorde anyway, seeing as she’s a wealthy celebrity.
Just the same, look on social media and you can see for yourself how a bad policy proposal not even officially put forth by a country’s opposition party has led…to this sort of thing…