Mooninites Meet Congress: Whose Fault is a "Hoax"?

The government will soon be able to sue parties involved in "hoaxes" that are mistaken for terrorism if a new bill is passed by Congress. The bill, entitled "The Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007," was introduced by the Senate and will amend the federal criminal code to include a number of new clauses meant to up the ante on wasting government resources. The amendments include extensions to the prohibitions on the spread of false information and mailing threats, increases to maximum prison terms, and allowances for civil suits so that local and federal governments can attempt to recoup expenses related to an incident.

The bill's introduction comes several months after the city of Boston made headlines over a "bomb scare" that turned out to be something not quite so serious. The Great Mooninite Scare of 2007 was, in fact, a guerrilla marketing campaign carried out by a marketing agency employed by the Cartoon Network for its popular late-night show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Circuit boards with LED lights in the shape of a Mooninite were placed all over 10 cities in the US: Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

The signs were in place for several weeks without incident. However, that changed one fateful day in January when a passenger on Boston's mass transit system spotted one and alerted the authorities. The rest, as they say, is history. The police descended upon Boston and shut down large parts of the city over what they thought was an act of terrorism. After realizing that the Mooninites were of no harm, the authorities were quick to call the incident a hoax and arrested two people who were employed to put the signs up. A judge eventually said that the suspects did not appear to have intended to create panic. However, that did not placate city officials who remained outraged at the incident, promising to push for harsher punishments in the future for incidents that waste government resources.

That brings us to where we are today, with the Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007. Although the Mooninite scare was determined to not be a hoax (but rather an unfortunate series of poor decisions), the provisions in the bill would allow the government to take civil action against parties involved in perceived hoaxes if they fail to "promptly and reasonably inform one or more parties... of the actual nature of the activity" once they learn about investigative action taking place. In the case of Boston, this means that everyone involved could be sued for not immediately informing the police of the campaign upon receiving news of the emergency reaction.