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Hey readers! Andrew here. Welcome to the Thursday edition of Internet Insider.
Hacktivism has made a roaring comeback over the last year, and that has continued in the wake of the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine. Check out our report below on how hackers set up a tool that allows people to send auto-generated text messages to people in Russia with information about the invasion.
Meanwhile, Claire Goforth, our politics reporter, deep dives into the social media history of one of the most notorious members of Congress: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Thanks for reading along. Now let’s dive right into the news.
—A.W.
BREAK THE INTERNET
Debunk: Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory are sharing a screenshot they claim shows that the support account for Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media app, using a slogan popular within the conspiracy. However, as our Politics and Tech Reporter Mikael notes, the post doesn’t appear to be real. Check out his full report here.
Hacktivism: Hackers have created an online tool that allows for people to send auto-text messages to random phone numbers in Russia that contain information about the war in Ukraine. The tool loads a pre-written statement into a user’s SMS app that tells them about Russia’s media “being censored” and that the Russian government is “lying.”
‘Fantastic Beasts’ absence: The trailer for the third Fantastic Beasts movie dropped a few weeks ago, and many fans of the franchise noted the absence of a central character in the first two movies: Tina Goldstein, played by Katherine Waterson. Gavia, one of our culture reporters, writes about how some believe her role was reduced because Waterson publicly opposed J.K. Rowling’s views on trans rights.
DIRTY DELETE
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s social media history shows exactly what she craves: internet notoriety
Before being elected in 2020, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was virtually unknown outside the dark corners of the internet where QAnon conspiracy theorists gather online. Since then, the freshman Republican congresswoman from Georgia has become a national figure whose brand is internet notoriety.
In the two short years that she’s been on the national stage, Greene has racked up an astonishing number of scandals—though whether certain gaffes, like when she supposedly accidentally mispronounced “gestapo” as “gazpacho,” were real or scripted is up for some debate.
One thing that isn’t debatable is that Greene is an extraordinary source of misinformation, particularly about COVID-19.
The torrent of pandemic lies she spews online got her permanently banned from Twitter (she still has a congressional account—for now), temporarily suspended from Facebook, and morphed her into a heroine for anti-vaxxers.
Greene’s lies and claims about COVID are just the tip of the confounding things she says and does online.
As one of the two QAnon conspiracists-to-Congress, Greene has professed belief in some genuinely bizarre theories, many involving children.
She’s spread lies that school shootings were staged and she’s indicated she believes “frazzledrip,” an insidious false theory about Hillary Clinton torturing a young girl and drinking her blood.
In 2019, Greene posted a video of herself accosting Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg in the street, accusing him of being paid by George Soros, and calling him a “coward” who uses “kids as a barrier.”
Like many QAnon followers, Greene is fixated on violence.
She’s expressed support for executing prominent Democrats such as Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Last April, she suggested that nurses tasked with going door-to-door to offer COVID vaccinations might be shot. She compared COVID restrictions to the Holocaust so many times that even the Republican Party was essentially like, “dude, stop.”
To be honest, it’s less surprising that Twitter banned her in January than it is that it took so long.
Since the bird app booted her, Greene’s tried building new nests on Gab, Gettr, and Telegram.
Her posts about arresting Hillary Clinton, stolen elections, and “pornographic” “Communist indoctrination” in novels like The Handmaid’s Tale don’t provide quite as much fuel for the outrage machine that she loves tearing around in with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), however.
A dog and pony show without an audience is just a couple of mammals palling around, after all.
Lately Greene’s been trolling in the real world. She recently heckled President Joe Biden throughout the State of the Union address and was rewarded with the negative attention she so clearly craves.
For the “Notorious MTG,” the juice is always worth the squeeze.
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KEY STORIES
Rep. Lauren Boebert is being mocked for saying she doesn’t know if President Joe Biden or an apparently nonexistent monarch is in charge of the federal government.
Better.com, a company that drew attention in December for firing employees over Zoom, is once again facing criticism after a fresh round of layoffs included an embarrassing blunder.
It’s more than just a diet plan; it’s a rethinking of food.*
Every day, people put their feelings, passwords, money, and more on the internet, giving life to a digital self. 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
It all comes full circle in this viral video where a Best Buy worker quits the same way his dad did more than 10 years ago. In the video, a worker throws his work uniform shirt onto a platform above the exit door at a Best Buy. His dad did the same thing when he quit the store in 2009.
Now Playing: 
“If I was a Cowboy, I’d be the Queen” by Miranda Lambert
