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- A California man got a year in prison over threats to Merriam-Webster and other businesses.
- Jeremy Hanson made threats related to gender, including some related to the definition of "female".
- Hanson's lawyers said due to mental health issues it's unlikely he would have acted on his threats.
A California man who pleaded guilty to making online threats to shoot up and bomb the offices of dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster was sentenced to a year in prison this week.
Jeremy Hanson, 35, was arrested nearly a year ago over his comments to Merriam-Webster on a charge of interstate communication of threats.
Hanson will serve a year in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, during which Hanson's attorneys suggested restricting him from owning firearms or accessing the Internet on non-monitored devices.
They also asked that he continue to receive medication and mental health treatment.
In October 2021, Hanson used an anonymous account to send several threatening messages and comments through the Merriam-Webster website's "Contact Us" page, and in the comment section for the dictionary entries for "girl," "woman," and "female."
Hanson used the handle "@anonYmous," and under the definition of "female" called for whoever was responsible for including "gender identity" in the entry to be hunted down and shot, the DOJ said.
While Merriam-Webster defines female as "of, relating to, or being the sex that typically has the capacity to bear young or produce eggs," it includes a secondary definition of "having a gender identity that is the opposite of male."
Hanson was also accused of making threats to bomb or shoot up the dictionary publisher's headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts, which forced that office and another in New York to close for several days.
"You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed," Hanson wrote in a message through the site's "Contact Us" page. "It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny [sic] agenda and altered the definition of 'female' as part of the Left's efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality."
He continued: "You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive."
Hanson's lawyers argued that he was diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder as a teenager, and that experts determined it is highly unlikely that he would be able to act on the threats, court records show.
They also said that because of the Covid pandemic and the suspension of the therapy and other services he used at the time, he spent more time online, consuming content on conspiracy theories that eventually led to the threats.
At the time of his arrest, prosecutors said Hanson also threatened several other brands and organizations online, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Land O' Lakes, and Hasbro, along with staff members of the University of North Texas and Loyola Marymount University.
"Today's sentence cannot undo the damage Hanson did, but it can provide some comfort in knowing that threats to life are not protected free speech but criminal acts, and the FBI and our partners will vigorously pursue those who commit them," said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Boston division, per the DOJ.
United States Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement that she hopes the sentence will demonstrate to LGBTQ communities that "this office will hold those who engage in threatening, hateful acts accountable."