KYM Review: Internet Outrages of 2017

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined internet culture in 2017 as we know it.

nother year, another neverending avalanche of wrath and fury on the web. The rising tide of viral outrage online has shown no signs of abatement in recent memory, and 2017 was certainly no exception.

Last year's historically polarized presidential election left the country deeply divided and many have been out for blood. Comedian Kathy Griffin was widely criticized for posing in a photograph holding a bloodied dummy head modeled after President Donald Trump in the style of an ISIS beheading, leading her to promptly remove the picture and apologize. President Trump subsequently went on to start a bitter feud with various professional football players who kneeled during the national anthem, causing his supporters to suggest boycotting the NFL in retaliation.

On university campuses, students and faculty clashed on issues of identity politics, leading to
to heated exchanges at Evergreen State College in Washington, UC Berkeley in California and Laurier University in Ontario.

Meanwhile, YouTube landed itself in hot water over the discovery of numerous disturbing accounts featuring videos of young children being abused and placed in upsetting situations.

For now, try not to let your blood boil as we review the top 10 internet outrages that occurred over the last year in chronological order.

YouTube Adpocalypse

One of the year's most devasting blows to online content creators were changes made by YouTube in response to a global advertiser boycott of video-sharing site. It all started in late March, when several prominent companies began expressing concerns over ads appearing alongside questionable videos, with some even boycotting the site as a result. In response, YouTube began heavily filtering any content deemed too controversial or extreme for monetization with a new "Restricted Mode," which dried up the revenue for several prominent channels, including the h3h3productions, Casey Neistat, TheReportOfTheWeek and numerous members of the YouTube LGBT community.

Needlessly to say, many weren't happy with the new restrictions, leading some content creators to move their sources of revenue to platforms like Twitch and Patreon.

Kendall Jenner's Pepsi Ad

To kick off the month of April, the soft drink company Pepsi released what went down as one of the most tone-deaf advertisements in recent memory. In the beverage commercial, model Kendall Jenner manages to end a clash between angry demonstrators and police officers by offering just a single can of Pepsi cola. Ironically enough, the commercial was successful in briefly uniting both sides of the political aisle in their distaste of the ad, leading to numerous parodies, image macros and photoshops mocking its absurd premise.

United Airlines Passenger Removal

In the age of smartphone devices, companies are just one tweet away from a public relations nightmare of epic proportions, especially the much-maligned U.S. airlines. After United Airlines overbooked a flight going out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, they selected four passengers at random for removal, a common practice in air transportation. When one passenger refused, airport security took him out by force, smashing his face against an armrest and bloodying him up in the process. The whole ordeal was captured by horrified onlookers, who uploaded videos to social media causing one of the year's biggest shitstorms. After apologizing for the incident, United Airlines reached an undisclosed settlement with the passenger who was identified as Dr. David Dao of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Sean Spicer Hitler Gaffe

Not to be outdone by Pepsi and United Airlines, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer shocked the nation by comparing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler, claiming that the deceased Nazi dictator "didn't even sink to using chemical weapons." The resulting backlash led to a slew of jokes combining Spicer with controversies for the previous week, forming the horrifying Pepsi United Spicer abomination. This wouldn't be the only gaffe uttered by Spicer over the year, but, alas, we all had to say our goodbyes when he resigned as White House Press Secretary in July.

DaddyOFive Prank Controversy

There are few things more outrage-inducing than bullying, especially when its parents doing it to their own kids. In April, a video in which YouTubers Michael and Heather Martin are shown loudly berating their child as part of an "invisble ink prank" drew an enormous backlash from those who saw the content as abusive. The parents initially scoffed at their "haters," but soon changed their tune and apologized after being criticized by YouTuber Philip DeFranco. Their problems didn't end there, and two of their children, Cody and Emma, were subsequently removed by authorities and placed under the care of their biological mother. In the end, the Martins pleaded guilty to two counts of "neglect of a minor" and were sentenced to five years probation.

CNN Meme War

If there is one truth the internet has taught us, it is to never underestimate the power of the Streisand effect. In early July, Donald Trump tweeted an animated GIF featuring a clip of himself taking down Vince McMahon with a CNN logo superimposed over the WWE CEO's face. Two days later, CNN published an article by senior editor Andrew Kaczynski, who claimed to have discovered the identify of the Redditor responsible for creating the GIF, noting that he apologized when contacted and promised to not "repeat this ugly behavior on social media again." Additionally, Kaczynski added "CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change." The unprecedented doxing of a Redditor by the major news media publication, along with the ominous-sounding personal threat, unleashed an enormous backlash against the company in the form of the CNN Meme War, in which an onslaught of similar anti-CNN GIFs flooded the internet in retaliation.

Google Manifesto

One of the internet's most powerful companies found itself at the center of a heated online debate this year after an internal memo leaked to various news sources online. The document, known as the infamous "Google manifesto", argued the ultimate causes of gender disparities in the technology industry could be partially attributed to biological differences between men and women, rather than pure discrimination. Not long after the document leaked, it was revealed to be authored by software engineer James Damore, who claimed he was concerned about Google's diversity and hiring efforts which he believed were potentially illegal. Damore was criticized by many as a misogynist for authoring the manifesto, while others defended the science cited in the document as backed by empirical evidence. After being terminated for violating Google's code of conduct, Damore has since become an activist for free speech.

Weinstein Effect

The world as we known it forever changed in October when The New York Times and The New Yorker reported that numerous women had accused film executive Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault and even rape. The widely publicized allegations spawned the viral social media hashtag #MeToo, which encouraged survivors of sexual assault and harassment to raise awareness of the disturbing epidemic. A wave of additional accusations against other prominent figures soon followed, which included allegations against Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., George Takei and Al Franken.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Controversy

In the age of online outrage, there is one group that has consistently proven itself a force to be reckoned with: gamers. After it was revealed that the progression system for Electronic Arts' highly-anticipated game Star Wars Battlefront II would be based around items received in purchasable loot boxes, disgruntled Redditors began accusing the game of employing a "pay-to-win" model on the /r/StarWarsBattlefront subreddit. In response to the complaints, the official Electronic Arts community team account managed to submit the most-downvoted comment in Reddit history in defense of the loot boxes. Memes deriding the company dominated the internet over the next week, eventually leading Electronic Arts to temporarily disable in-game purchases.

Net Neutrality Repeal

The ongoing battle of net neutrality kicked into full gear after Trump-appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai announced a planned repeal of Obama-era net neutrality provisions against Internet service providers, preventing the companies from blocking or throttling internet traffic. In November, the FCC revealed plans to hold a vote on the repeal in December, causing an enormous backlash across the entire web. Many took aim at Pai himself, making him the subject of humiliating image macros, videos and GIFs.