diff --git a/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py b/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py
index 66852436..851019a3 100644
--- a/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py
+++ b/backend/api/tests/test_tasks.py
@@ -32,6 +32,12 @@ class TestIngestClassificationData(TestIngestData):
             labels = set(cat.label.text for cat in example.categories.all())
             self.assertEqual(labels, set(expected_labels))
 
+    def assert_parse_error(self, response):
+        self.assertGreaterEqual(len(response['error']), 1)
+        self.assertEqual(Example.objects.count(), 0)
+        self.assertEqual(Label.objects.count(), 0)
+        self.assertEqual(Category.objects.count(), 0)
+
     def test_jsonl(self):
         filename = 'text_classification/example.jsonl'
         file_format = 'JSONL'
@@ -116,14 +122,17 @@ class TestIngestClassificationData(TestIngestData):
         self.ingest_data(filename, file_format)
         self.assert_examples(dataset)
 
-    def test_wong_jsonl(self):
+    def test_wrong_jsonl(self):
         filename = 'text_classification/example.json'
         file_format = 'JSONL'
         response = self.ingest_data(filename, file_format)
-        self.assertGreaterEqual(len(response['error']), 1)
-        self.assertEqual(Example.objects.count(), 0)
-        self.assertEqual(Label.objects.count(), 0)
-        self.assertEqual(Category.objects.count(), 0)
+        self.assert_parse_error(response)
+
+    def test_wrong_json(self):
+        filename = 'text_classification/example.jsonl'
+        file_format = 'JSON'
+        response = self.ingest_data(filename, file_format)
+        self.assert_parse_error(response)
 
 
 class TestIngestSequenceLabelingData(TestIngestData):
diff --git a/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py b/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py
index 09283352..e5bb89af 100644
--- a/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py
+++ b/backend/api/views/upload/dataset.py
@@ -172,9 +172,13 @@ class JSONDataset(Dataset):
     def load(self, filename: str) -> Iterator[Record]:
         encoding = self.detect_encoding(filename)
         with open(filename, encoding=encoding) as f:
-            dataset = json.load(f)
-            for line_num, row in enumerate(dataset, start=1):
-                yield self.from_row(filename, row, line_num)
+            try:
+                dataset = json.load(f)
+                for line_num, row in enumerate(dataset, start=1):
+                    yield self.from_row(filename, row, line_num)
+            except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
+                message = 'Failed to decode the json file.'
+                raise FileParseException(filename, line_num=-1, message=message)
 
 
 class JSONLDataset(Dataset):
@@ -187,7 +191,7 @@ class JSONLDataset(Dataset):
                     row = json.loads(line)
                     yield self.from_row(filename, row, line_num)
                 except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError:
-                    message = 'Failed to encode the line.'
+                    message = 'Failed to decode the line.'
                     raise FileParseException(filename, line_num, message)