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Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here (I’m back!). Welcome to today’s edition of Internet Insider.
Happy Opening Day! ⚾ The first day of the MLB season is my favorite day of the year. I’m a Mets fan, so I’m cursed with being optimistic every spring before all of those good vibes come crashing down in the summer.
But enough about my unhealthy relationship with fandom. In today’s newsletter, our Politics Reporter Claire focuses on the internet’s favorite politician to dunk on in her “Dirty Delete” column down below: Ted Cruz.
Plus, we have the top internet culture news you need to know about.
Let’s dive into the news… and let’s go Mets!
— A.W.
BREAK THE INTERNET
PHOTOSHOPPED?: A Republican Senate candidate in Ohio is being accused of photoshopping himself into a photo of several soldiers who appear to be Black. In the photo, which was used in a recent campaign ad, the candidate stands next to the other soldiers. People online noted that his hands appear darker than his face.
FAKE ACCOUNTS: There’s yet another stumble in the tumultuous launch of Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s fledging social media platform: It’s full of fake government profiles. The Daily Dot found more than a dozen accounts on the platform whose handles match those of verified accounts of government entities on other social media platforms. Check out the story here.
BANNED: A tech researcher at UCLA and professional dominatrix is claiming that DoorDash disabled their account for engaging in sex work. Additionally, they say, they believe the ban is because of cross-platform data sharing. You can read our whole report (and interview with the researcher) here.
The internet loves to hate Sen. Ted Cruz
They say you never want to be Twitter’s main character of the day. But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) routinely claims this dubious honor, be it by liking a porno late at night, jetting off to a tropical resort while his constituents literally freeze to death, or pulling a Karen move on airline employees.
Cruz isn’t the Zodiac Killer. But he is an (allegedly) living, breathing meme machine.
Like that terminally annoying kid from middle school, Cruz seems to revel in all the negative attention. He loves to be loathed so much that he recently got busted vanity surfing after a performance during Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
Cruz’s online presence didn’t always have that certain je ne sais quoi that gets his name trending on the regular.
His early days on Twitter were an assortment of pimping his speaking engagements, begging for money, and fanboying Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (Well, not everything about his timeline has changed.)
Since then, Cruz has sharpened his internet fangs by going after a wide range of real and fictional characters ranging from Trevor Noah to Jack Dorsey to Big Bird (seriously).
Little as they may like to admit it, Cruz’s many detractors can’t deny that he’s parlayed their hatred into internet success. Since joining Twitter on the Ides of March in 2009, he’s gathered 4.7 million followers. More than 2 million follow him on Facebook.
A social media traditionalist (aka Gen X-er), the only other platforms you’ll find him on are Instagram and YouTube. He could have sock puppets, of course, but there’s no official Cruz missive machines on fringe platforms like Parler, Gettr, and Gab. And you won’t even find the name “Truth Social” in his timeline’s mouth. Perhaps he knows a loser when he downloads one.
Although Cruz gives the impression he gives zero fucks about how his tweets land, the sheer number of tweets he’s reportedly deleted indicates that he actually does care what people think. (It’s unknown whether he wants to be liked more or less, however.)
Some of Cruz’s dirty deletes over the years have occurred in a matter of seconds; others many weeks or months later.
As he claimed after the infamous porn tweet liking incident, he appears to be getting some help from staff to craft his reputation for being one of the most reviled people on the internet.
Earlier this year, Cruz tweeted then deleted a tweet about undocumented immigrants crossing the border that began with “Proposed Tweet.”
Cruz is liberal about deleting tweets, but he’s more conservative about following the rules than many of his brethren on the right.
When others get suspended for spreading hate speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, Cruz manages to thumb his way right up to the line, but not past it.
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🔑 KEY STORIES
A viral video of a serving robot being used at a Florida diner has elicited a lot of emotional responses from viewers.
A TikTok has gone viral after a user shared a video of herself preparing a “vasectomy care package” for her fiancé. It was filled with puns.
Less time halving recipes, more time to enjoy.*
In “Death on the Internet,” the Daily Dot explores how this digital self can live on in the internet’s memory—even after the actual self has abandoned it.
*The Daily Dot may receive a commission in connection with purchases of products or services featured here.
BEFORE YOU GO
A video that shows an Apple store employee giving a coding class to a virtually empty room has gone viral. Many people expressed sympathy for the employee and the blatant disinterest he received for his efforts.
Now Playing: 🎶“Meet the Mets” by Ruth Roberts and Bill Katz🎶