Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.
Our top stories today are about: A viral video showing chaos ensuing at a Panera drive-thru, Avril Lavigne finally addressing the clone replacement conspiracy theory about her, why the internet can’t stop talking about the “Four Seasons Baby,” and Trump’s social media company admitting that if people stop being interested in the former president the company will die off.
After that, our Senior Politics and Technology Editor David has a “Deplatformed” column for you.
See you tomorrow!
— A.W.
⚡ Today in internet culture
🚙 CAUGHT ON CAMERA
‘But where’s the car supposed to go?’: Viewers defend Panera customer who can’t figure out drive-thru, causes havoc
A driver’s mishap in a Panera Bread drive-thru was caught on camera, and people have a lot of thoughts about it.
👥 CONSPIRACY
Avril Lavigne finally addresses clone replacement conspiracy
For those unfamiliar, in 2011 a Brazilian fan site theorized that Melissa Vandella, an actress Lavigne had allegedly hired to deal with the paparazzi for her, had replaced her in 2003 after the starlet’s mysterious so-called death.
👶 VIRAL
‘That baby is fully sentient’: The internet can’t stop talking about the ‘Four Seasons Baby’
The latest TikTok sensation has everyone rethinking babies.
💬 TECH
Truth Social admits people losing interest in Trump could kill the site
If people aren’t interested in Trump’s post anymore, the company’s toast, they say.
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🚉 Deplatformed
By David Covucci
Politics & Technology Editor
Deplatformed: Save a Horseman of the Apocalypse
Deplatformed is a weekly column that looks into the nether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you the political discourse online. It runs on Thursdays 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.
💇 A hair salon customer posted a viral TikTok in her car after paying $300 for a highlight appointment. She says the stylist tried to charge $40 to dry her hair.
🏨 Apparently there is a hotel in Las Vegas that you shouldn’t stay in, at least according to this one warning that went viral.
🚘 In a viral video, a mechanic shared his picks for car brands that have become “money pits.”
🍗 Murmurs of how Chick-fil-A customers can nab free sandwiches from the restaurant have been circulating the internet for quite some time.
🕶️ A woman issued a warning after wearing Amazon sunglasses and experiencing yellow dots in eye. She says she later learned she may have permanently damaged her eyes.
🛍️ Perennial DoorDash users may’ve found a way to cure their addiction to ordering through the application so much: having the same driver call them out for multiple orders on the same day.
🌐 From the Daily Dot archive: Is there a First Amendment right to assemble in the metaverse?
📝 Question of the Day
HAVE YOU EVER ORDERED FOOD ON A RESTAURANT’S ‘SECRET MENU‘?
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👋 Before you go
After getting a letter in the mail, this wife finds out that her husband may have a 13-year-old child neither of them knew about. Viewers are at the edge of their seats, waiting to know the truth.
In a now-viral TikTok, Danielle Dewmt (@mrs.dwmt) says her husband received a letter in the mail from the Department of Children and Families (DCF) asking if he can care for a child that needs a new home.
“I’m pretty confident they don’t just send these letters to just anyone,” Dewmt says. “I’m pretty sure you have to be on a list or like somehow related to the child. We don’t know who the child is. They provided the child’s name and date of birth. So, by our calculations, the child is 13, and it would [have] made my husband 24 years old when the child was born.”
“Do I have a child?” Dewmt’s husband says toward the end of the video, most likely with some humor, as the camera shows his alarmed face and Dewmt’s laugh.
