Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: A woman getting revenge on a persistent scammer, how Hillary Clinton’s take on the Barbie Oscar snub sent the internet into a frenzy, whether or not you should be concerned about the data leaked dubbed the “Mother of all Breaches,” and presidential hopeful Nikki Haley calling out Trump’s mental fitness in a recent speech.
After that, our trending team shares with you their pick for “Main Character of the Week.”
Also: It’s Friday, which means it is time for our weekly news quiz. Just scroll down below to answer the question. If you guess correctly, you might win a “Jingle Blogs” shirt.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today’s top stories
☎️ SCAMS
Woman pranks phone scammer by playing elaborate car crash sounds: ‘Sounds like a whole Michael Bay action sequence’
In a viral video, a woman showed how her roommate allegedly called back a persistent phone scammer and pretended to be in a car crash.
🎬 CULTURE
Hillary Clinton’s ‘Barbie’ Oscar snub-2016 election comparison drives the internet off a cliff
It was a discourse bomb.
💻 TECH
Should you be worried your data is in the ‘Mother of all Breaches?’
A data leak that’s been dubbed the “Mother of all Breaches” is stirring fear online after more than 26 billion personal records were exposed.
🗳️ POLITICS
‘There is a decline’: Nikki Haley calls out Trump’s mental fitness in New Hampshire concession speech
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley went after former President Donald Trump’s age and mental fitness shortly after he was declared the winner of the New Hampshire Republican primary.
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✏️ Take our weekly news quiz!
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A DoorDash customer recently confronted a delivery driver and accused them of eating their food. What did they accuse the driver of eating?
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👑 Main Character of the Week
By Ramon Ramirez
Managing Editor
Main Character of the Week: Scratch-off guy
Main Character of the Week is a weekly column that tells you the most prominent “main character” online (good or bad). It runs on Fridays 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.
🌮 This Taco Bell customer went viral after she found a receipt from 2012 and saw just how much food costs have risen over the past few years.
🍷 You’ve probably heard of mixed drinks, but have you ever heard of mixed wines? If not, you’re not alone.
💸 What happens when discounts at stores like Walmart are not really discounts?
🧳 In a video sparking much discourse, one TikToker argues that she never takes her 4-ounce liquids out of her carry-on when going through the TSA line at the airport.
🥝 A ShopRite customer is calling attention to a recent trend she’s spotted at her local store: single slices of kiwi packaged on top of different types of fruit in the produce section.
🧇 This waffle enthusiast took to TikTok after trying Aunt Jemima’s replacement, Pearl Milling, and claimed that the syrup doesn’t taste the same.
🍽️ A server recently went viral after he shared how much he made working at a fine-dining restaurant in just under six hours.
🌐 From the Daily Dot archive: Is there a First Amendment right to assemble in the metaverse?
👋 Before you go
In a viral video, TikToker Leila Soares (@leilabelosoares) realizes she is on the same plane as her boss after calling out sick.
In the video, Soares is wearing a black baseball cap, sunglasses, and a mask. She is completely incognito, which has come in handy, because it is a this moment that she realizes that her boss is on the same flight with her. In the video, she zooms in on a man a few rows ahead of her, and over the footage, the text reads: “Messages my boss to call in sick only to find he on the same flight.”
The video has 6.6 million views and thousands of comments. Many viewers found Soares’ dilemma highly entertaining and quite relatable. They shared similar experiences.
