LOS ANGELES, June 11 — Lesson #23 of Twitterverse: Irony might not translate well in cyberspace.

Author Joyce Carol Oates took to Twitter on Tuesday to express her outrage over the “barbaric” practice of hunting — but might have fallen victim to a too-small smartphone screen instead.

In honour of the release of “Jurassic World”, a Twitter user uploaded a photo of Steven Spielberg posing in front of a triceratops with the message, “This guy thinks it’s cool to kill defenceless animals then take a selfie. Jerk.”

The 77-year-old novelist then retweeted the image, with the caption: “So barbaric that this should still be allowed... No conservation laws in effect wherever this is?”

After Twitterverse had their collective chuckle at her expense, Newsweek managed to get in touch with Oates to find out whether she was in on the game all along.

Her reply? “Many of my tweets are meant to be funny; but I guess that is not always a good idea.”