The Verge’s Internet Culture section is the home for daily coverage of how our online lives influence and are influenced by pop culture and the world around us. The ways in which we communicate, create, and live with each other have been radically altered by the internet’s powerful connective tissues, from the platforms we inhabit, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram; to the policies, laws and guidelines that govern them (or don’t); to the subcultures, communities, and memes that bring us together there — for better or worse. Here you’ll find our coverage of life on the web, with an eye on what’s next.
To support their suits against OPM and DOGE, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is selling a retro-looking ringer t-shirt, and honestly it’s kind of a banger. I think I am going to buy one, hem it into a crop top and wear it when I go rock climbing. At $25 it’s a steal.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing the site of “left-wing bias.” As I wrote in a feature about the site last month, there is a growing campaign by the Trump administration and other powerful actors around the world to influence the encyclopedia.
Cruz’s letter exhibits many of the common traits of these attacks: citations of dubious studies from conservative think tanks, quotes from the disgruntled Wikipedia co-founder, complaints about right-wing sources deemed unreliable, and requests for information about Wikipedia policies that are publicly available -- in meticulous detail -- on Wikipedia itself.
This is the glass cliff to end all glass cliffs.
The Internet darling valued at $100 billion in 2001 when it merged with Time Warner is for sale by Apollo Global Management for about 1 percent of that. Italy’s Bending Spoons is said to be interested, owner of WeTransfer, Evernote, Komoot, and Vimeo.
Look, I’m more of an Oxford English Dictionary girlie, but I respect the hustle from Merriam-Webster. I hope our terminally online dictionary raises a cool billion.
Delightful scene report about a bunch of children who think they’re building god. Highlights include: appearances from Dumpster Boyfriend, “a sperm-racing start-up,” and “Carsten, a Swiss German 27-year-old who was designing AI-involved sandals but recently pivoted to drug testing.” Claude, is this a top signal?
[Intelligencer]
Two terrorism-related charges against Mangione were dropped at a court hearing on Tuesday in the New York state case.
Mangione was facing with two terrorism-related charges in the New York State case. It will likely be seen as a big win for Mangione. In his ruling Judge Carro wrote:
While the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward UHC, and the health care industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to “intimidate and coerce a civilian population,” and indeed, there was no evidence presented of such a goal.
[NY Courts]
This is the first time Mangione is appearing in court since February’s chaotic hearing that became a public spectacle. We’re expecting more news to come of this hearing — the judge may even set a trial date.
Last year, the Archive lost an appeal in its ebook lending case, and now it has settled the lawsuit over its Great 78 Project:
The Internet Archive’s blog simply says:
As noted in the recent court filings in UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Internet Archive, both parties have advised the Court that the matter has been settled. The parties have reached a confidential resolution of all claims and will have no further public comment on this matter.
We aren’t your friends, and you’ll never be alone again.
Boys Go to Jupiter writer / director Julian Glander sees his new movie as a story about society’s lost connections.
Raphaël Graven, a 46-year-old French influencer known by his streaming handle, Jeanpormanove, died in his sleep during a live broadcast on Kick earlier this week after being “humiliated and mistreated for months” on the platform, according to French technology minister Clara Chappaz. A judicial investigation into his death is underway.
The most effective MAGA influencer happens to be the most shameless, IRL attention-seeker of them all.
Actor Sydney Sweeney is currently embroiled in a days-long “discourse” cycle about a campaign she shot with American Eagle. The ad — and whether it’s a eugenics dog whistle — is one thing. But I liked this Atlantic piece that zoomed out and put the outrage and online content cycle into perspective. Chat, is discourse cooked?
[theatlantic.com]
Getting copied is devastating — but not necessarily illegal. Who owns what in an era of unprecedented mass consumption?
Or would you? The weird little toys are a nightmare to buy so we took matters into our own hands.
We’ve talked before about the funhouse-mirror-alternative-reality that Trump (and Musk) have built. JP Brammer, who watches much more YouTube than I do, notes something weird is going on in content land — it seems Donald Trump has lost control of the plot. NBC’s Brandy Zadrozny, writing from a more anxious angle, seems to agree. Content has now outpaced reality. I guess we’re going to find out by how much.
[johnpaulbrammer.substack.com]
What foundational internet words have to do with 4chan.
In our second annual trend forecast, The Verge staff weighs in on Labubus, tariffs, The Hague, and AI slop.
Drummer Greg Saunier explains the moral calculus behind leaving the biggest streaming platform.
Labubus — those kind of scary little dolls with teeth that people are obsessed with — are hard to come by these days. It’s no surprise that the knock off industry is filling the gap; what is funny is that the fake dolls (“Lafufus”) are popular, too. For some Labubu owners, the authenticity of their doll doesn’t even matter. It’s part of the fandom experience all the same.
Kyle Chayka, who wrote for this website about the “airspace” aesthetic created by social media, is now looking into how LLM models affect creativity. He suggests that if Silicon Valley once homogenized decor — and, to some degree, created beige influencers — it may now be making LLM users less original, too.
[newyorker.com]
No? Well, let Rusty Foster fix that for you. I promise the quick progression of headlines in this newsletter will leave you feeling, if not concussed, then certainly different.
[todayintabs.com]
With their new spinoff podcast, the Mission to Zyxx team is building a bigger universe of improvised space adventures.
If you’re a celebrity promoting a new movie or your latest album, you used to follow a standard playbook of late night shows, magazine cover stories, or daytime talk shows. Now you have to do all that and eat chicken wings with YouTubers or give your hottest take while riding the subway. The New Media Circuit is a powerful driver of views, likes, and comments — but does it actually sell anything?
[vulture.com]
IEEE Spectrum wrote about running an old-school bulletin-board system (BBS) from a Raspberry Pi 3 over LoRa, using the off-grid mesh-networking capabilities of Meshtastic, and it sounds like a very fun, nerdy project.
I didn’t have internet access early enough to get in on the BBS craze at its height. Perhaps this is my second chance?
Kottke directed me toward a website posing a question I have never, ever asked myself: which of two chickens is more frolicsome? Which is more optimistic? More aberrant? Creator Erika Hall will take suggestions for new adjectives, too.
[clickens.chicken.pics]
Whatever the opposite of coolhunting is, Max Read’s analytical prediction of an accursed new internet trend does it:
The high-alpha nature of committed, political “smoking is actually good” arguments, combined with existing coalitions for developing annoyance at people with public-health masters degrees into ideological position, is likely to create a solid pro-smoking bloc, especially as we enter summer and face down a fertile period for stupid discourse.
[maxread.substack.com]
In the new season of the HBO show, Jason Isaacs’ character sulks around the luxury resort in a shirt from his alma mater. One scene in particular (warning: spoilers!) has become something of a meme. Duke says it didn’t approve of its logo being so prominent, telling Bloomberg that the imagery is “troubling” and “goes too far.”
[bloomberg.com]
Ahh MySpace. A website from simpler times when the worst you had to worry about from social media was falling out with the friend that didn’t make your Top 8. It has since puttered along morphing into something completely unrecognizable...until now. Game designer Ste Curran has created SkySpace, a website that’ll take your Bluesky profile and make it into a MySpace page complete with a customizable background, a Top 8 you can set, and even a music plugin.
