Don't Google

Confirmed 148,111

Part of a series on Bait / This is Bait. [View Related Entries]

About

Don't Google, also known as Do Not Look Up and Don't Google Translate, refers to reverse-psychology posts on Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms which warn users against googling certain words or word combinations, seeking to arouse their curiosity and bait them into making the search. The format often baits users into googling shock sites and imagery such as 2 Girls 1 Cup, or into googling slurs, sex terms or semantically similar words, such as Dinosaur Which Had 500 Teeth. On TikTok, posts following the format are often accompanied by a slowed-downed version of "Dreams" by ZHY & NERO known as "A Body Has Been Discovered."

Origin

While some posts following the format have been discovered earlier,^[1]^[2] the format did not see pronounced spread until it gained popularity in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit, on TikTok, and on Instagram in September-October 2019. On Reddit, the earliest discovered post following the format was made by Redditor^[3] nessso on September 13th, 2019, captioned "Do No Don't Google 'Lovecraft Cat Name'" (shown below, left). The post received over 540 upvotes in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit. While the origin of the trend on TikTok is unknown, the #dontgoogle hashtag was indexed by Google^[4] on September 25th, with the earliest discovered post made by TikTok^[5] account @dont.google on October 20th, 2019 (shown below, right).

Spread

Starting in September 2019, memes warning users against looking up certain words and word combinations and translating certain words in Google translate received popularity /r/okbuddyretard subreddit. For example, a September 28th, 2019, meme^[6] by Redditor Raul_bitchboi inviting viewers to translate "how" into Romanian received over 3,400 upvotes in five months (shown below, left). An October 1st, 2019, meme by Redditor FyreAresenal^[7] based on the joke received over 8,700 upvotes (shown below, right).

Starting in November 2019, the format gained significant popularity on TikTok, with users baiting the others into checking shock websites and looking up disturbing imagery such as gore. For example, a November 24th, 2019, post by TikTok^[8] user @dont__search.ok received over 213,700 likes in two months (shown below, left). A December 5th, 2019, post by TikTok^[9] user @google_scary_stuff received over 150,800 likes (shown below, center). A December 12th, 2019, post by TikTok^[10] user @a1anth gained over 408,600 likes in two months (shown below, right).