KYM Review: Internet Outrages of 2018

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 2018 as we know it.

ith each year, the internet finds new and improved ways of pissing people off. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have become bottomless pits of anger and resentment, feeding society's unending thirst for feelings of righteous fury.

On 4chan, disturbing accusations that Discord user Reiko#3333 had blackmailed users on 4chan's /r9k/ board into taking hormone therapy pills to become part of his "harem" caused an uproar on the site, though some question the authenticity of the stories.

On Twitter, actress Roseanne Barr came under fire for posting a tweet about Valerie Jarret, the African American former advisor to President Barack Obama, which many interpreted as a racist. In the resulting aftermath, which led to Barr losing her television show, the actress claimed she had no idea about Jarret's ethnicity and asserted she was tweeting while under the effects of the sleeping medication Ambien.

Melania Trump briefly took headlines from her husband by wearing a jacket with the words "I Don't Really Care" printed on the back, which many online interpreted as an insensitive message regarding family separations at the Mexico border.

On Facebook, a video in which Tennessee sixth-grader Keaton Jones discussed his experiences with being bullied tugged at many people's heart strings. But not long after, it was the boy's mother was accused of being a Milkshake Duck for posting photographs of her family posing with a Confederate flag.

But that's just scratching the surface. Let's take a closer look back at the top 10 outrages that made the internet grab their pitchforks over the last year.

Logan Paul's Suicide Forest

At the beginning of the year, YouTuber Logan Paul managed to become the internet's Public Enemy No. 1 after posting a video in which he discovers a dead body in the Aokigahara forest in Japan. Paul was widely criticized for trying to exploit a man's suicide for views on YouTube and that he behaved inappropriately in the video. After one poorly received apology tweet, Paul posted a more serious video in an attempt to clear his name. After a short break from vlogging, Paul reappeared later that month with a short documentary about suicide.

By the end of the year, things largely went back to normal for Paul, but Indonesian YouTuber Qorygore ruffled feathers once again by going to the Aokigahara forest himself, where he discovered a raincoat that may have been covering a dead body.

Article 13

For many, the European Union Copyright Directive replaced net neutrality as a primary concern in the list of topics threatening internet freedom this year. In particular, Article 13 of the directive struck many as potentially disastrous for internet platforms hosting user-uploaded data, expanding their liability for all material posted on their site. Many pointed out the chilling effect such regulations could have on the creation of memes, leading to enormous online campaigns opposing the proposed legislation. In addition to the hashtag "#SaveOurInternet", opponents of the directive created photoshopped edits of the European Union Flag as a form of protest under the tongue-in-cheek notion that turning the flag into a meme would make it illegal under Article 13.

Tide POD Challenge

Jokes about eating Tide laundry detergent capsules have circulated online since as early as 2013, but it wasn't until the beginning of the year that a moral panic ensued in response to the game known as the "Tide POD Challenge". To play the social media game, genius teenagers posted videos of themselves ingesting Tide PODS online, which reportedly led to a marked increase in poisoning incidents worldwide. To combat the meme, Tide issued a public service announcement by NFL star Rob "Gronk" Gronkowski, and YouTube announced they would ban all Tide POD Challenge videos from the platform.

Meanwhile, an anime girl version of laundry detergent capsules called Tide POD Chan was born.

Channel Awesome Implosion

In March, a series of disturbing stories about the YouTube network Channel Awesome began circulating on Twitter along with the hashtag #ChangeTheChannel, accusing management of sexual harassment and various other forms of mismanagement and mistreatment.

The resulting backlash led to a slew of other producers leaving the network, leading to jokes that the only remaining producer was Larry Bundy, who was "only on the site ironically."

Tumblr Porn Ban

After Tumblr was removed from the iOS App store in November, many began speculating that the sexually explicit blogs on the site were to blame. The following month, Tumblr announced that "adult content" would no longer be allowed on the platform, and people were not happy to say the least. Memes arguing that the adult content ban would be the demise of the platform quickly circulated online, and users joked about a mass exodus from Tumblr to the media website Newgrounds. Meanwhile, Verizon stock plummeted immediately following the announcement.

In the updated Tumblr community guidelines, the line "female-presenting nipples" became a meme in itself on the microblogging site.

White Cop-Callers

Back in April, a woman was nicknamed BBQ Becky after calling the police on a group of African American people operating a charcoal grill at a park in Oakland, California. She quickly became the butt of jokes online, many of which mocked and accused her of racial discrimination.

Over the course of the year, a slew of other videos in which white people were shown calling the police on African Americans went viral around the web, giving rise to other nicknames like Permit Patty, Pool Patrol Paula, ID Adam, Coupon Carl, Baggage Claim Becky and Cornerstore Caroline. In response, The New York Times released a comedy sketch about a fake hotline for white people who want to call the police on black people "for no god damned reason."

Filip Miucin's IGN Plagiarism

Hell hath no fury like gamer rage. Back in July, YouTuber Boomstick Gaming noticed some striking similarities between his review of the game Dead Cells and a review posted by the gaming website IGN by Nintendo editor Filip Miucin. After making a video exposing the suspected plagiarism, the video exploded on Reddit where the pitchforks came out in full force.

IGN immediately apologized and pulled the video and announced they had "parted ways" with Miucin after performing an investigation. Over the next week, several other examples of suspected plagiarism surfaced, leading IGN editor Justin Davis to remove all of Miucin's content from the website.

Sarah Jeong NYT Hiring

In August, The New York Times announced they would be hiring Sarah Jeong to the publication's editorial board as the "lead writer on technology." It didn't take long for critics to perform a full audit of her Twitter history, discovering a collection of tweets making disparaging remarks about white people.

After a wave of backlash, Jeong claimed the tweets were meant to be satirical and referred to them as "counter-trolling" for abuse directed her way. Shortly after, The New York Times released a statement echoing Jeong's claims that she was "imitating the rhetoric of her harassers." In the end, supporters of Jeong compared the backlash to the 2014 GamerGate controversy, while critics argued the Times was being inconsistent for firing journalist Quinn Norton over Twitter correspondences.

Johnny Bobbitt's "Paying it Forward" GoFundMe

In November last year, New Jersey residents Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico came to the internet with a heartwarming story, claiming that homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt had given McClure his last $20 when she ran out of gas to help her get home safely. The couple started a GoFundMe called "Paying it Forward" to raise funds for Bobbitt, which gathered upwards of $400,000 in the coming months.

In August this year, the story took a dark turn when Bobbitt accused the couple of withholding his money, to which they responded by accusing him of wasting the funds on drug addictions. In an even more bizarre twist, all three were arrested on charges of conspiracy, with authorities alleging that the trio made up the entire story to bamboozle the entire internet.

Butch Hartman's Oaxis Streaming Service

In June, American animator Butch Hartman launched a Kickstarter for a new streaming service called OAXIS. After videos emerged of Hartman promoting OAXIS as a Christian network, he was widely accused of hiding the true nature of OAXIS from backers on Kickstarter leading to a widespread backlash.

By the end of July, Hartman posted a letter addressing the controversy, claiming that "OAXIS Entertainment is not faith-based," but by that point, numerous memes mocking Hartman as a manipulative scam artist had proliferated across the web.