Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: A woman recounting how she drove by a “creepy” cop who later found her Instagram and DMed her, the Federal Communications Commission finally setting a date to vote on restoring net neutrality rules, a Trump operative being accused of faking the social media profile of a judge’s daughter in the Stormy Daniels case, and the discourse that exploded after someone claimed that none of the women on SNL are “hot.”
After that, the trending team shares with you their pick for “Main Character of the Week.”
Since it’s Friday, that means it is time for our weekly news quiz! Just scroll down below to answer the question. If you answer correctly, you might win a web_crawlr shirt.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today’s top stories
👮 WTF
‘How?’: Woman drives next to police officer. Then, she gets a DM from a private Instagram
“He probably ran ur plates & found ur name thru that … so creepy you dodged a bullet,” suggested one user.
🌐 INTERNET RIGHTS
The FCC is finally voting on restoring net neutrality—3 years after Biden took office
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote later this month on restoring net neutrality rules rescinded during former President Donald Trump’s administration.
⚖️ POLITICS
Trump operative accused of faking social media profile for daughter of judge in Stormy Daniels case
A court spokesperson said the account handle no longer belonged to Merchan’s daughter.
📺 POP CULTURE
A TikTok user claimed none of the women on ‘Saturday Night Live’ are ‘hot,’ and the rest of the internet has thoughts
Naturally, fans of the show had a lot of thoughts on this intense claim—as well as some A+ jokes—and were quick to share them.
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A RECENT VIRAL VIDEO WARNED CUSTOMERS OF A SCAM HAPPENING AT KIND OF ESTABLISHMENT?
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🎓 Learn to internet
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👑 Main Character of the Week
By Ramon Ramirez
Managing Editor
Main Character of the Week: DoorDasher who ate customer’s wings but delivered the bones
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.
💵 Viewers of this viral video are divided after a woman said she’ll still tip “20-25%” even if her service was poor at restaurants.
⛽ A user on TikTok has sparked discussion after claiming to discover a gas station at which 88 unleaded is cheaper than 87—but there’s a catch.
🦷 In a viral video, a Goodwill customer found used Tom’s toothpaste for sale in-store. It gets worse.
🧀 What takes the “comfort” out of “comfort food?” Shrinkflation. According to one Panera customer who says his side dish splurge was less than filling, even good old reliable mac and cheese is feeling the pinch of the corporate bottom line.
🚗 This car salesman got a lot of attention online after he revealed which cars to never buy at a used dealership.
🛒 This shopper says she cut nearly $200 off her grocery bill by shopping at Family Dollar. How did she do it?
💳 A woman is irate after she and her friend learned an H&M Gift Card Giveaway was random, and not for the first 100 shoppers that visited the store during a Grand Opening ceremony, as a promotional email she received allegedly stated.
👋 Before you go
In a “Parent Trap”-esque switch, a woman says her dog was switched with another dog who is nearly identical while at their dog daycare.
In a TikTok that has drawn over 190,000 views, user @stuttebooty says that while she gaslit herself into believing that the dog she came home with was, in fact, Farley, her seven-month-old golden retriever puppy.
But she grew more suspicious as time passed. She said she observed small things, like his behavior and a “mohawk” of fur on his nose that had suddenly disappeared, and chalked them up to the equivalent of puberty for dogs, which occurs when they are between seven and 10 months old.
That is until she saw photos posted to the dog daycare’s Facebook page showing that another extremely similar-looking golden retriever puppy of a similar age also attended the daycare.
“I sent this to my fiancé and I’m like, ‘Do you really want to tell me that they didn’t switch our dog?‘” she says.
