Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: Trump fans thinking that he looks like Elvis Presley, Taylor Swift’s team threatening legal action against a college student tracking her private jet, an Xfinity customer detailing her nightmare experience with the company, and a look at how Temu has swept the global market but left its sellers paying for the low prices.
After that, our Senior Politics and Technology Editor David has a “Deplatformed” column for you.
Also: It’s your last chance to ask our Executive Editor Whitney Jefferson a question about the Daily Dot! If your question gets picked to be answered, you’ll get a web_crawlr shirt.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today’s top stories
🎸 POLITICS
Does Trump look like Elvis?
Former President Donald Trump shared a photo comparing himself to the late Elvis Presley, leading to an influx of mixed reviews across social media.
✈️ POP CULTURE
Taylor Swift’s team threatens legal action against college student tracking her private jet
Lawyers for pop star Taylor Swift have threatened legal action against a college student who uses publicly available data to track celebrities’ private jets.
🌐 VIRAL
‘Wondering why your rate has increased for 2024?’: Xfinity customer says they doubled her bill without telling her—then refused to talk
Internet Service Providers are some of the most frustrating, greedy, dishonest, shady, and fickle businesses that consumers are forced to deal with.
💻 TECH
‘It’s squeezing us out of the market’: Temu has taken e-commerce by storm—but sellers say they’re paying for those low prices
As Temu has swept the global market, its own merchants say its dogged pursuit of undercutting the competition’s prices has hurt their bottom line.
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🚉 Deplatformed
By David Covucci
Politics & Technology Editor
Deplatformed: Draft Scott Pressler
Deplatformed is a weekly column that looks into the nether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you the political discourse online. It runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
🕸️ Crawling the web
Here is what else is happening across the ‘net.
💵 To split the check, or to not split the check on a first date? The topic is a fiery one online, but most agree that whoever asked the other person on a first date should also expect to pick up the bill.
🍟 A McDonald’s customer was filmed telling his friends to order at their own kiosks even though he had racked up a whopping 17,444 rewards points.
💸 A woman claiming to bank with SoFi says that her money has been “held hostage” for the previous 10 days, and she’s worried about her ability to pay bills as a result.
🚶 A couple has gone viral after sharing a TikTok of them waiting for their Uber Eats delivery that was coming on foot and was 85 minutes away.
👗 In a humorous viral video, two Marshalls patrons filmed a disappointing trip through the store’s clearance racks, where they discovered several spoiled makeup products and other damaged items.
🏨 A former Hyatt Hotel worker went viral when she shared how some rewards members use the same complaints to get freebies during every stay.
🛍️ From the Daily Dot archive: #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt: Why TikTok shopping is now the ordinary.
📝 Question of the Day
Everyone’s got opinions, and we want to know yours. Just click a button below to answer the question, and tomorrow we will let you know how fellow web crawlers like you answered.
WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE SUPER BOWL?
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👋 Before you go
One customer got an unwelcome surprise after ordering guacamole at a Mexican restaurant.
In a video with over 4.5 million views, TikTok user Ysabella (@ysabella.v) films a woman making guacamole with a molcajete. The woman appears to be seated in a Mexican restaurant.
“She ordered chips n guac not knowing she had to make it herself,” Ysabella writes in the text overlaying the video. In the caption, she adds, “Does she have to pay for this?”
While it may be unorthodox, the restaurant shown in the video, Baja Betty’s in San Diego, is relatively clear about the fact that this is how they serve their guacamole, though the wording may still be open to interpretation.
