The internet undoubtedly played a profound part in shaping the most significant cultural and political moments of 2024. Throughout the year, we’ve seen the ways that the most viral moments are shaping and being shaped by the way people consume and engage with the internet. With each passing day this year, some new change was enacted to X (formerly known as Twitter), making the app less and less hospitable. Social media is now more segmented and fragmented than ever: Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, TikTok, and on and on. But what hasn’t changed is the human desire (and perhaps more cynically, the desire of corporations and politicians) to reach people — to come together over a cause or joke or little internet meme.
Take this year’s U.S. presidential election. The two presidential candidates did a large portion of their campaigning online and were endorsed by some of the biggest influencers in the world. The two candidates carried out a strategy that tapped major influencers to engage, speak directly to, and mobilize a younger audience to the polls — so much so that many dubbed this year’s election the “influencer election.”
President-elect Donald Trump was seen rubbing shoulders with some of the most controversial content creators. He was interviewed by Kick streamer Adin Ross (who also gifted him a Tesla Cybertruck and a Rolex watch), who appeared in a July Instagram video with Jake Paul and hosted the Nelk Boys on his plane. Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign team took directly to platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels to push out zany yet heartwarming videos for their supporters using popular songs and sounds over clips from rallies, racking up millions of views and likes. Also, the Harris campaign got support from the most prominent figures in entertainment, including the two titans, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, and sat down with interview shows like Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy, Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay and the popular I’ve Had It podcast, which also had former president Barack Obama as a guest.
Within three months, Harris’ campaign raised over $1 billion, and while it may not have been enough to secure her the White House, it was a significant feat for someone who had less than 100 days to run a successful campaign. It makes sense that both candidates used social media to their advantage because the internet is one of the most important spaces to form and engage with communities as different niches grow in various corners of social media, finding the right people through algorithmic recommendations.
Throughout the year, the presidential election wasn’t the only thing on people’s minds. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Instagram held space for various dramas, scandals, and controversies that overtook millions of “For You” pages. Here are the 13 biggest viral moments of 2024.
13. Chappell Roan calling out a photographer to his face
We all know it was the year of Chappell Roan — but in addition to making great music, she also spent this year making some points (literally). One of her most meme-able exchanges came during Olivia Rodrigo's premiere for her GUTS World Tour Netflix film, where Roan took to the red carpet with flaming red hair and something to say once she recognized a photographer on the step-and-repeat.
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In captured video, you can see Roan approaching a photographer to say, “You were so disrespectful to me at the Grammys.” She continued, “You yelled at me at the Grammy party. Yes, I remember. You were so rude to me. And I deserve an apology for that. You need to apologize to me.” The internet quickly picked up the moment, and the meme of her pointing and demanding respect echoed around social media — an icon was born.
Notably, it was her second altercation with a photographer in two months; at the VMAs, she told off a photog who shouted “shut the f*ck up” in her direction with a quick response, “You shut the f*ck up.” Roan has also been candid about her experiences with fame, fan harassment, and the negative sides of parasocial relationships. Her outspokenness, her killer hooks, her diva style: you may not 100% agree with everything she says, but in 2024, Chappell Roan became a star.
12. The internet’s collective thirst over Luigi Mangione
On Dec. 4, the CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson, was shot by a masked gunman moments before he was set to speak at an investment conference. The shooter immediately fled the scene and was said to have escaped through Central Park, where he dropped his backpack filled with monopoly money, and allegedly took a Greyhound bus from Port Authority. The internet showed little sympathy for the death of the CEO, with many sharing horror stories of being denied coverage by the insurance company Thompson spearheaded, putting the shooter in the internet’s good graces.
Almost a week later, the police apprehended a suspect. As soon as the police identified the person of interest as Luigi Mangione, the internet instantly went on a deep dive and seemed to have found his social media pages, including his Goodreads, X, and Instagram. Photos of Mangione circulated on the internet, and people immediately started sharing pictures of him shirtless. Of course, there’s fan fiction on Archive of Our Own, memes, and fan cams cropping up all over X as people try to find out more information about the alleged shooter.
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The more they dig up, the more the internet is endeared to Mangione, and the thirst doesn’t seem to be subsiding any time soon — though the internet is split on whether or not Mangione is the person who committed the crime. There are more and more videos cropping up across TikTok and X, where users are sharing their theories about why they feel he may be a ploy in a larger scheme or how every part of the way this story is unfolding is intentional.
11. Moo Deng sweeps the world, but a presidential prediction pushes her off her pedestal
The internet has been obsessed with cute animals since the advent of internet culture as we know it. There was Grumpy Cat, Doug the Pug, the Keyboard Cat — and now, among this hall of fame, a pygmy hippo named Moo Deng. She rose to social prominence after videos of her waddling around her enclosure, bothering her mother, and biting the knees of her handlers started making the rounds on TikTok.
She became so popular that Saturday Night Live had Bowen Yang in a hippo costume, cosplaying as Moo Deng but giving off the vibe of Chappell Roan learning to deal with this overwhelming amount of newfound fame (talk about a sentence that would put a Victorian child in a coma). Americans weirdly have an obsession with having animals predict the outcome of significant events, like the octopus that correctly predicted the World Cup, so Moo Deng was put to the same test during the night of the election, correctly predicting Trump’s win. Soon after, she was banished from our social consciousness, and we all moved on to a new pygmy hippo named Haggis, who may still be too young to do any sort of predicting.
10. “Nasty” by Tinashe became a runaway social media hit
Tinashe made 2024 her year with her sleeper hit, “Nasty,” which became a viral moment that shot the 31-year-old singer to new heights, taking her out of a more niche context and thrusting her into the mainstream. The song served as the lead single for her album Quantum Baby, the second project in a planned trilogy, and it became a runaway success.
Shortly after she released the song in April, an older video of a guy named Nate who posted a video of himself dancing to soca music became a format for a meme. Someone took the video of Nate and overlaid Tinashe’s song, which fit perfectly with the video, and the viral meme was born. It took over people’s TikTok For You Pages worldwide, as people mimicked Nate’s moves to Tinashe’s song.
The 31-year-old is no stranger to the internet and knew to jump on the trend quickly, posting a video of herself dancing in an outfit similar to Nate’s and welcoming the fun. The song had long legs, with its popularity making it through the summer and providing an off-ramp for people to dive into her album when it was released in August.
9. Youthforia’s Darkest Shade Causes Major Controversy
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Beauty brands cannot escape conversations about inclusivity and diversity, not only in the employees they hire or who they invite on brand trips but especially in the products they market to consumers. Youthforia, a relatively new brand launched in 2021, caught flack in October 2023 after putting out a skin tint with only 15 shades. To rectify this, they updated the range to include 10 more shades in April, one of which was a jet-black foundation with no undertones that immediately caused a swift backlash.
A creator named Golloria George, whose content mainly focuses on trying the darkest shade of different makeup brands, called out Youthforia for their darkest shade, calling it “tar in a bottle.” She was supported by another content creator named Javon Ford, a cosmetic chemist, who said at the time, “This foundation only has pure black pigment.” The brand attempted to do crisis management by explaining its process, but the company’s founder, Fiona Chan, remained mum when it came to making a statement. That was until about two months ago (after the controversy ran its course), when Chan uploaded a video to Youthforia’s TikTok at the end of September and took accountability for the mishap.
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8. “Demure” rakes over the internet
“Demure” is not a new word, but TikToker Jools Lebron, who identifies as a transgender woman, transformed it into a cultural phenomenon. The content creator regularly uploaded videos of herself sharing how she practices “demurity.” Lebron shared videos of herself maintaining her makeup by blotting away the sweat on her face and saying how“very demure” it was to do so. She continued to share videos where she’d give examples about how to be demure and mindful, so much so that it caught fire on TikTok and became an inescapable viral sensation. Lebron began doing partnerships with major cosmetic brands and even made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live when RuPaul guest-hosted the show.
The success of her viral meme gave her the opportunity to finance her transition, and , Dictionary.com even declared “demure” as the word of the year.
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7. Caleb Hearon’s iconic “Cooper” story on Drew Afualo’s podcast with Brittany Broski
Influencer podcasts get churned out like nobody’s business these days. Once you reach a certain level of fame online, if you want a podcast, you can get one. Most of them consist of content creators inviting their friends on and cosplaying as journalists trying to get good soundbites to promote on TikTok. Drew Afualo, on the other hand, is a completely different story with her show The Comment Section. She made the perfectly calculated decision to have her two real-life close friends Brittany Broski and Caleb Hearon on a podcast episode and it instantly became easily one of the funniest episodes a podcast has put out this year. The three of them have expert comedic timing and delivery, but put them in a room together and they make magic.
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The highlight of the episode is when Hearon regales Afualo and Broski with a story about bothering one of his classmates, named Cooper, to find out what cologne he wears because he wanted to be as popular as him. But he has a hard time getting the name of the cologne out of Cooper because he realized Cooper didn’t want to be “cologne brothers” with him. All the while, Afualo and Broski are uncontrollably laughing in the background but also sprinkling in jokes of their own and adding on to Hearon’s. All three of them are already roaring laughing, but they all lose it when Broski jokes about Cooper not wanting to “smell like that fat gay kid.” By the end of the clip, they’re all wiping away tears from their face. The interaction between these friends easily reminds any viewer of retelling an embarrassing story to their own friends, making them burst into hysterics. The video was clipped and shared on TikTok, where it currently has over 11 million views and over two million likes, taking on a life of its own with people continuing to make jokes about it to this day.
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6. The Ayamé, Yuval, and Oliver love triangle that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Palestine
As a society, we don’t yearn enough. This love triangle between TikTokers Ayamé (@ayame.p), Yuval (@Yuvaltheterrible), and Oliver (@Olivermillsn) captivated hundreds of millions of people, but it ended up being for a good cause. The story began with Yuval finding precisely what hotel Ayamé was staying at based on the details in her room. It started as a fun bit as she egged him on and made videos saying he would never guess where she was — then he’d reply with a video telling her exactly what stone she was standing on in one of her videos. When they met on a video shoot for an Audible ad, Oliver came in the picture and made a flirty video together. This set off a chain of videos, accumulating over 186 million views across 50 videos in June.
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Since the war in Gaza began, Ayamé and Yuval have used their platform to raise awareness and money for the people of Palestine. The love triangle became a resource for the three creators to engage their followers to share GoFundMes for families attempting to flee the war-torn territory and saying that their fans would be rewarded with more content about their love affair after the goals for fundraising were met, which also became a way of content creators raising awareness for what was going on in Gaza.
TikTok creators know they have to be creative in getting and keeping their viewers engaged, not only in their videos but the thing they are influencing, and drama was one way they could do a bait-and-switch in promoting GoFundMes for families in Palestine. The trio wasn’t the first to do this, but it was a common tactic around the time the love triangle took off on social media. Many creators bait viewers with a disgruntled remark about a different creator or seem like they’re going to talk about drama, but then share a story about a family in Palestine or first-hand accounts from people in the middle of a warzone.
This method of content proved to be effective in getting the message out there to their creators’ millions of followers and raising large sums of money for people in need.
5. Megan Thee Stallion sent Nicki Minaj (and her fans) into a spiral with “HISS”
This was one of the earliest internet dramas that took off this year. Megan Thee Stallion had a few choice words for her critics on her January song, “HISS,” which served as the second single for her third studio self-titled album, Megan. After dealing with the undeserved backlash for naming her former friend Tory Lanez as the person who shot her back in 2020, the 29-year-old rapper released two singles that teed up her first project as an independent artist after she left 1501 Certified Entertainment. The song “Cobra” came to the public in November 2023, and “Hiss” came in January 2024.
In the song, she spits venom as she says, “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s law,” which refers to the federal law that requires information about sex offenders to be available to the public. The song seemed to have struck a nerve with rapper Nicki Minaj and her fans, the Barbz, given Minaj’s husband and brother are both registered sex offenders. Minaj and her legion of loyal fans began to attack Megan, online and off.
In response, the “Super Bass” rapper released the incoherent mess of a song “Bigfoot,” in which she jokes about Megan getting shot and saying she was “lying on her dead momma.” The Barbz also did some of Minaj’s dirty work online as a growing number of them began doxxing content creators who were critical of “Bigfoot” and shared their thoughts about the song on TikTok. This sort of thing is unfortunately not new in stan groups and was a reminder that unless the person being defended calls off their impressionable young fans, there are real-world consequences.
4. Reesa Teesa’s 50-part “Who TF Did I Marry?!” ends surprisingly well
Reesa Teesa, whose real name is Tareasa Johnson, did something influencers can only dream of: keep people’s attention. She captivated hundreds of millions of people on TikTok with her natural storytelling abilities as she told the story about how her husband was not the person he told her she was. In her fascinating 50-part “Who TF Did I Marry?!” series, she talked about how she met a man she named Legion, and through a growing number of suspicious activities, she learned that he lied about who he was, his career, and how much money he had — leading to their eventual divorce and the online drama that ensued.
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As of publishing this story, she has accumulated over 400 million views on her videos from the series. Her mega virality led to a number of daytime television appearances, profiles and interviews in major publications, and an official television adaptation of her story that will star Natasha Rothwell (The White Lotus), who is also an executive producer. If there’s anything to take away from Reesa Teesa’s journey is: post that content — you never know where it may lead.
3. Charli XCX’s breakthrough with Brat summer
It’s difficult to claim one victor for this year, but it’s also difficult to see anyone else having a better year than Charli XCX. For years, the British hyper-pop auteur operated in a specific corner of the internet with a slowly growing number of devoted fans who became aware of her through various social media platforms. Her star began to rise in 2022 when she released her fifth studio album, Crash, even though Charli called it her “sell out” album in an interview with NPR, saying she was toying with the idea of playing by the rules of the music industry, whereas she often operates on the fringes.
It’s hard to tell if Charli was prepared for the cultural phenomenon that Brat would become. She released the original version, then the deluxe version, then remix singles, and finally a whole remix album. Throughout this summer into fall, there wasn’t a day on the internet where someone wasn’t talking about being brat, figuring out what brat means, or just fawning over the numerous hits she released during this era. When Vice President Harris joined the race for the presidency, Charli tweeted “Kamala is BRAT,” which became an entry point for the vice president’s presence on social media during her campaign.
2. President Biden dropping out of the Presidential race and the viral Harris campaign that ensued
Everyone knows where they were when they found out that President Joe Biden decided not to run for a second term and threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House. I, for one, was in my living room listening to “Low” by Flo Rida with my roommate when I opened X and saw the official POTUS account. Shortly after the president addressed the nation in an official letter uploaded to X, the VP kickstarted a campaign that heavily emphasized reaching constituents through social media and celebrities.
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Within three months of entering the race, she raised over $1 billion, and her campaign staffers worked quickly to gain a following on social media with @kamalahq on TikTok. This is not the first time a presidential candidate used social media, but it is the first time a candidate has used it well — it felt like she and her staffers met the online community where they were at and didn’t just post videos of her, hoping to drum up engagement, which would turn into donations. Instead they opted for fan cams, memes and jokes about Trump,and heartwarming videos. One of the best parts about Kamala HQ was they were not afraid to make from of Trump in a way that only works on the internet, specifically on TikTok. One of their most viewed videos was of Trump at one of his rallies, trying to adjust a mic stand with no mic on it with the caption, “y’all want this?? For president??”
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Now, of course, we know that it didn’t really work — but for those sweet few weeks in July, it felt like they were really doing something refreshing. (And the internet responded accordingly.)
1. Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake
Rap beefs are a no-holds-barred kind of brawl. There’s no such thing as boundaries or taking things too far, and the Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake beef that consumed our timelines for months proved just that. The two musical behemoths are respected in Hip Hop in their own ways, but they’ve long had a somewhat contentious relationship. That friction took on a new life in the past year or so, after Drake struck a nerve with “First Person Shooter,” his song featuring J. Cole from his eighth album For All the Dogs released in October 2023. On the song, Cole claims that he, Lamar, and Drake are “the big three” of rap. This became the jumping-off point for the feud and provided ammunition for Lamar to respond with a verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” in March 2024.
Compared to what’s to come, Lamar softly responds to the assumption that they’re in the same league by rapping, “Motherf*ck the big three, n**** it’s just big me.” The floodgates opened, and the two rappers entered a protracted battle where they would release disses back and forth, each with increasingly hard-hitting bars aimed directly at one another. Drake, for his part, released “Push Ups” and “Taylor Made Freestyle” in April, where he made fun of some of Lamar’s commercial success in providing verses for Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift, and tries to make fun of Lamar for his height.
Lamar —who, it’s important to note, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album DAMN — returned with “Euphoria,” where he menacingly rapped about Drake being a “a pathetic master manipulator” and basically said he hates everything about him, and the paranoia-inducing “6:16 in LA.” After this, the two traded insults in quick succession and aired out rumors they’ve heard about each other; Drake subsequently released the rebuttals “Family Matters” and “The Heart Part 6” while Lamar dropped the villain-esque “Meet the Grahams”and his pièce de résistance “Not Like Us.” This song was the final nail in the coffin, with Lamar coming out as the clear winner with a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 that has since been nominated for five Grammys. He went on to kick Drake while he’s down, going on a victory lap with his Amazon Music special The Pop Out: Ken and Friends, where he performed the song six times.
This beef was one of the first times we saw a rap feud be drawn out for this long on social media, especially between two of the biggest musicians in the world. With every new drop, social media users were quick to name a winner and expect that to be the last song, but Lamar’s fans knew he was going to get the last word and come out on top — which is exactly what happened. The Amazon Music special wasn’t the last of Lamar’s victory lap, though. On November 22, he surprised his fans with new album GNX, just a few months before he’s set to perform at the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime show, where he’s expected to perform “Not Like Us” in front of millions of people.
