Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: A look inside the tortured history of the internet’s most famous haunted lake, people falling for a fake Marjorie Taylor Greene post about “land dragon” dinosaurs, an explainer of the Ash Baby meme, and how actress Courtney Cox joined in on the “80s moms dancing” trend.
After that, our Senior Politics and Technology Editor David has a “Deplatformed” column for you.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today in Internet Culture
🚣♀️ WTF
Inside the tortured history of the internet’s most famous haunted lake
Conspiracies about Lake Lanier’s haunting have gone viral on social media.
🦖 VIRAL POLITICS
Threads duped by old Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘ocean dragons’ meme
A viral screenshot circulating on Threads has many convinced that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) went on a recent rant about dinosaurs actually being “land dragons” from biblical times.
👶 MEMES
Ash Baby, the reaction meme nobody asked for
Ash Baby (also known as the Screaming Baby Made of Ash) is an AI-generated image of a small, ash-covered baby screaming with its arms outstretched.
💃 POP CULTURE
Courteney Cox joined in on the ’80s moms dancing’ TikTok trend in the best way
Courteney Cox reveals how she danced in the ’80s…and shows her work!
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🚉 Deplatformed
By David Covucci
Politics & Technology Editor
Deplatformed: Gab’s fake white women
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.
💵 Tipping culture pushed one woman beyond her tipping point, and she used TikTok to vent about it.
✈️ Missing a flight can ruin travel plans and become an expensive headache for any would-be passenger. But when one person blamed Delta for missing her best friend’s wedding, it backfired.
🍕 This Costco customer says that as long as customers offer up a secret code to food court employees, they’re able to get their hands on a chicken bake pizza—a combination of two of the establishment’s food items.
🦷 In a viral video, a woman explained that she went to the dentist to get her wisdom teeth removed, but left with a broken jaw.
🛒 Target announced plans to cut prices on thousands of consumer basics as it looks toward the summer months. But one content creator wasn’t buying the idea that the retailer was doing so for altruistic reasons.
🌮 Fast food, once synonymous with budget-friendly dining, feels like it’s more expensive than ever.
⚰️ From the Daily Dot archive: Here are the real-life stakes of faking your death online.
📝 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.
HAVE YOU EVER DRUNK A FOUR LOKO?
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🤳 Today’s Viral Video
Roblox gamers can get paid to work in a virtual IKEA store!
