How a year of living almost exclusively online made the internet weird again
CNN
On the audio-based app Clubhouse, people are gathering in virtual rooms to make whale moaning noises or to participate in silent meditation together. Hundreds of people on the popular gaming platform Discord started a server where they just send each other the letter "h" all day every day. And a new Twitter account created this week shows the same short clip of Tony Soprano crying in his car with different sad songs playing in the background and has quickly racked up thousands of followers.
After several years of concerning headlines about misinformation, election meddling, filter bubbles, online harassment and more, there are flickers of a more carefree -- and weird -- internet. At times it felt like a throwback to a more innocent web, when Dancing Baby filled our inboxes, Second Life took on a life of its own and Rickrolling was an ever-lingering threat. And all it took was a devastating pandemic that forced many in the United States and around the world to live their lives almost exclusively online for much of the past year. Make no mistake, those long-simmering problems remain. A year into the pandemic, we've seen both the dark and light sides of people spending more time online: Women, people of color and the LGBTQ community continue to face disproportionate harassment online. Boredom, anxiety and fear during the pandemic have driven people into dangerous conspiracy theories like QAnon or baseless anti-vaxxer beliefs.
Top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, who led controversial immigration sweeps in Democratic-led cities, has told people he plans to retire at the end of the month, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
President Donald Trump’s handpicked Kennedy Center board of trustees voted Monday to close the storied performing arts institution for two years for renovations.
Florida GOP congressman Rep. Neal Dunn was thrust into the spotlight after Trump said he had a heart problem and underwent surgery
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, President Donald Trump announced Monday.
An Afghan man who served alongside US special forces and fled his native country after its takeover by the Taliban died over the weekend shortly after being detained by immigration authorities, according to his family and an advocacy group.
5 things to know for March 16: War with Iran, Oscar winners, Travel chaos, Severe weather, US airmen
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning.
The retirement of Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin after nearly 30 years in office sparked an expensive three-way Democratic primary that has showcased the party’s divisions over how to confront President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and introduced pro-crypto forces as an influence seeking to shape the midterm elections. The contest is also setting up a test of Gov. JB Pritzker’s political clout in the state as he eyes a potential 2028 presidential bid.
One month into the partial government shutdown, hundreds of Transportation Security Adminstration workers going without full pay have quit, prompting more travel headaches amid ongoing staffing shortages, a winter storm in the Midwest and spring break travel.
Moves to create massive new immigration detention facilities are catching local officials by surprise, leaving them and their communities scrambling for answers.
The Israeli military said the brother of the man who drove a vehicle laden with explosives into a Michigan synagogue Thursday was a Hezbollah commander killed in a strike last week.
A Rhode Island community had their own “Miracle on Ice” last night when Colin Dorgan whose mother, father and grandfather were killed in a devastating shooting last month, scored the game winning goal in double overtime to lead the Blackstone Valley Schools’ hockey team to the championship game.
As the politics around Israel shift in the US, many Democratic lawmakers and candidates are seeking distance from the American Israel Political Affairs Committee. It comes as the group is spending big to shape the outcome of primaries across the country.
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy in February weighed possible political peril against a long career in medicine, ultimately casting the critical vote to confirm known vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy as the president’s Health and Human Services secretary.