Newsletter: 😂 Republican fooled by Star Wars prop amid drone hysteria

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Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr. 

Our top stories today are about: A Republican getting duped by a Star Wars prop amid the panic over drone sightings, an Amazon shopper who shared the truly strange reasoning they got about their package, why an OpenAI whistleblower dying by suicide has sparked conspiracies, and how Sims 4 players are creating Luigi Mangione characters to play with. 

After that, our Senior Politics and Technology Editor David has a “Deplatformed” column for you. 

See you tomorrow! 

— A.W. 

⚡ Today in Internet Culture

🛰️ FAIL
Failed GOP candidate duped by Star Wars prop in panic over drone sightings

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) is getting trolled online after he put the Biden administration’s handling of recent drone sightings on blast—by using an image of a Star Wars prop.

➤READ MORE

📦 WTF
‘Demolished by WHO?’: Amazon shopper says package never arrived. Then he gets a strange notification

While there are tons of reasons why you might not receive your Amazon package on time, this has got to be one of the strangest. 

➤READ MORE

🔍 CONSPIRACY
An OpenAI whistleblower died by suicide—his final X post is now conspiracy fodder

An employee-turned-whistleblower with the artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI was found dead in his San Francisco apartment, prompting a flurry of conspiracy theories online.

➤READ MORE

🖥️ VIRAL
‘Sims 4’ players are creating Luigi Mangione characters to play with—complete with thick eyebrows and an orange jumpsuit

You can find and download them all in the ‘Sims 4‘ gallery.

➤READ MORE

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By David Covucci
Politics & Technology Editor

MAGA lusts over ‘Day of the Rake’ 

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 woman’s video recently went viral after she shared the disastrous results of trying to wash a used beanbag chair.

❄️ The Tesla Cybertruck is once again facing backlash after a recent snowstorm led one owner to discover a major design flaw with the vehicle.

🚗 A woman just bought a Subaru in February and it’s already doing something weird.

📱 No one likes phone companies, which is probably why this woman went viral after calling out T-Mobile, which she said “lied” to her about the cost of a new phone plan.

🍕 Little Caesars is known for its Hot-N-Ready pizza and its Crazy Bread. But what if we told you you didn’t have to choose between the iconic menu items? 

⚰️ From the Daily Dot archive: Is your kid attending funerals on Roblox?

🤳 Today’s Viral Video

FOX sparks debate in viral video, slamming Luigi Mangione and calling Daniel Penny a “hero.”