Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: Trump being forced to sit and listen to a number of potential jurors’ anti-Trump memes, a traveler recalling a nightmare experience while flying Frontier Airlines, a study that shows how big tech’s political ad libraries are lacking critical data, and footage of actor Austin Butler training for Dune 2 going viral.
After that, the trending team shares with you their pick for “Main Character of the Week.”
You know the drill at this point: It’s Friday, so it’s time for our weekly news quiz. Scroll down to answer the question, and if you guess correctly you might win our brand new “Take Me Out To The Blog Game” shirt.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today’s top stories
⚖️ POLITICS
‘Amazing ego destruction’: Trump forced to sit through review of prospective jurors anti-Trump memes
Trump wasn’t happy with some of the posts.
🧳 VIRAL
‘That would drive me crazy’: Customer says Frontier Airlines forced people off plane, kept their luggage
In a viral video, a customer says Frontier Airlines forced nearly a dozen people off of a plane but didn’t tell them their luggage would continue on the journey.
💻 TECH
As 2024 election approaches, new study finds Meta, X, and Google’s political ad libraries lack critical data
In the age of social media, political ads can influence elections. And while sites have worked since 2016 to be transparent about the spending on their platforms, a new study finds that effort lacking.
🎥 POP CULTURE
Footage of Austin Butler training for his ‘Dune 2’ fight scenes is going viral
Dune 2 has been experiencing monumental levels of success ever since the highly anticipated sequel hit theaters last month, and one of the stand-out performances was from one former Elvis, Austin Butler.
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IN A RECENT VIRAL VIDEO, A CUSTOMER CLAIMED HE WAS ‘POISONED’ BY A FAST FOOD CHAIN. WHICH CHAIN RESTAURANT WAS IT?
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👑 Main Character of the Week
By Ramon Ramirez
Managing Editor
Main Character of the Week: Woman whose car was disabled by a dealership at a Planet Fitness
Main Character of the Week is a weekly column that tells you the most prominent “main character” online (good or bad). It runs on Fridays 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.
🚘 In a viral video, this mechanic revealed the ‘dumbest’ thing you can do as a car owner.
✈️ One TikToker documented his travel “hack” in a viral video that’s garnered over 188,000 views. While many found his dedication to the joke amusing, others said they, too, tried this and couldn’t recommend it in good conscience.
🛒 Some updates to self-checkout guidelines at department store retailer Walmart have customers upset at the prospect of using a subscription service to provide access to the checkout mechanism.
🍴 One customer went viral for sharing why “cheap” options to eat don’t really exist anymore.
💳 “Would you like to sign up for our store credit card?” The overarching question that hangs over every shopper’s head when they go to check out at their local Marshalls, Victoria’s Secret, Ulta, Target, TJ Maxx… the list goes on and on and on.
🥤 People online have a lot of opinions about Dunkin’s new “Sparked” seltzer drink.
📱 Even though smartphones now play a large role in the lives of most Americans, the devices still aren’t fully understood by many who use them.
🛍️ From the Daily Dot archive: #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt: Why TikTok shopping is now the ordinary.
👋 Before you go
Bad news if you’ve got an eye shadow addiction and a fickle heart. According to a former Sephora manager, you could get banned from making returns at the beauty store chain if you do it too often.
California-based beauty creator Jennie Pham (@greeneggsandglam) recently shared her knowledge about the policy on TikTok. She made her video in response to another creator’s post about the policy. Pham explained that she was a manager at a Sephora store until last March.
The video has 1 million views and almost 70,000 likes.
“Yes, you can be banned from making returns at Sephora,” Pham said in the video.
The creator explained that it’s not about the ratio of returns to purchases.
“What matters is the dollar amount of what you’re returning,” she said.
