ViralWorld

The internet in 2018

2018 was the year of The Tumblr adult content ban, Dame Tu Cosita, Kiki Challenge and The complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir. Part of the platform era.

The one from 2018

The Tumblr adult content ban

You might remember it as Tumblr purge, December 17 Tumblr

A platform deleting the culture that lived on it, and losing a third of its traffic in three months.

Defining moments of 2018What the year is remembered for

2018, month by monthAs it happened

  1. Dame Tu Cosita It is released as a single, and the animated video is uploaded. Wikipedia — Dame Tu Cosita

  2. Distracted boyfriend It is named best meme of 2017 at the tenth Shorty Awards. Wikipedia — Distracted boyfriend

  3. Crab Rave The track is released as an April Fools’ joke. Wikipedia — Crab Rave

  4. Despacito Despacito became the first YouTube video to reach five billion views. Guinness World Records

  5. Despacito It is the first video to reach five billion views. Wikipedia — Despacito

  6. Yanny or Laurel A student posts a re-recording of it on Instagram. Wikipedia — Yanny or Laurel

  7. Yanny or Laurel It reaches Reddit. Wikipedia — Yanny or Laurel

  8. Woman yelling at a cat Miranda Stillabower posts a photograph of her cat Smudge at a dinner table behind a plate of salad, captioned “He no like vegetals”. Wikipedia — Woman yelling at a cat

  9. Among Us The game is released for phones. Wikipedia — Among Us

  10. Kiki Challenge The song enters the Billboard Hot 100 at number six. A week later it is number one, partly because of the challenge. Wikipedia — In My Feelings (song)

  11. Guns N' Roses' November Rain passed a billion views — the first video made before YouTube existed to do so. Billboard

  12. The Tumblr adult content ban Apple removes Tumblr’s app from its store after illegal images of children are found on the service. Wikipedia — Tumblr

  13. Old Town Road The Yeehaw Challenge takes off on TikTok at the end of the month, and carries the song onto the Hot 100 at number 83. Wikipedia — Old Town Road

  14. Old Town Road Lil Nas X releases the song independently, a day after recording it in Atlanta. Wikipedia — Old Town Road

  15. The Tumblr adult content ban Tumblr announces a ban on explicit images and videos. Wikipedia — Tumblr

Also in 2018Older things, still moving

  1. Boaty McBoatface Boaty spends 51 hours under Antarctic ice in the Weddell Sea. Wikipedia — Boaty McBoatface

  2. Grumpy Cat A jury awards Grumpy Cat Limited 710,000 US dollars against a coffee company that had used her name beyond its licence. Wikipedia — Grumpy Cat

  3. Milkshake Duck Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary names it word of the year for 2017. Wikipedia — Milkshake Duck

  4. Steamed Hams Oakley posts his original draft of the scene. Wikipedia — Steamed Hams

  5. The End of the World A sequel is released, subtitled “Probably for Real This Time”. Wikipedia — The End of the World (video)

  6. Fyre Festival Billy McFarland pleads guilty. Wikipedia — Fyre Festival

  7. Keyboard Cat Bento dies, aged nine. A third cat, Skinny, is announced as his successor a year later. Wikipedia — Keyboard Cat

  8. Tenor Google buys it. Wikipedia — Tenor (website)

  9. Bilibili The company’s shares begin trading in New York. Wikipedia — Bilibili

  10. Rubber duck debugging The programmers’ site Stack Overflow adds a duck that listens to a problem and answers “quack”, as an April Fools’ joke. Wikipedia — Rubber duck debugging

  11. The monkey selfie An appeal court rules that animals cannot hold copyright or sue under the Copyright Act. Wikipedia — Monkey selfie copyright dispute

  12. StumbleUpon It shuts down, and its accounts are moved to a successor. Wikipedia — StumbleUpon

  13. Loss On the tenth anniversary Buckley replaces the strip on his site with one in which the man smirks at the reader. The original is back a day later. Wikipedia — Loss (Ctrl+Alt+Del)

  14. Crab Rave A version with the words “Obama is gone” laid over the dancing crabs spreads widely. Wikipedia — Crab Rave

  15. Kiki Challenge The American transport safety board warns that jumping out of moving cars is dangerous. Wikipedia — In My Feelings (song)

  16. dril A tenth-anniversary collection is published as a book. Wikipedia — Dril

  17. Kiki Challenge The song’s official video is released. Shiggy appears in it, and it ends with a montage of people doing the dance. Wikipedia — In My Feelings (song)

  18. We Are Number One Stefánsson dies. Wikipedia — We Are Number One

  19. Distracted boyfriend Sweden’s advertising ombudsman rules that an internet provider’s job advertisement built on the meme discriminates on grounds of gender. Wikipedia — Distracted boyfriend

  20. Hide the Pain Harold Arató gives a talk at TEDxKyiv called “Waking up as a meme hero”. Wikipedia — András Arató

  21. Press F to Pay Respects Viewers fill the chat with the letter during a stream held in tribute to the victims of a shooting at a gaming tournament in Jacksonville. Wikipedia — Press F to pay respects

  22. Salt Bae A video of him serving the president of Venezuela, during food shortages there, brings protests at his restaurant in Miami. Wikipedia — Salt Bae

  23. Wojak The Doomer appears on 4chan’s /r9k/ board. Wikipedia — Wojak

  24. Fyre Festival He is sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit 26 million US dollars. Wikipedia — Fyre Festival

  25. Road Work Ahead His YouTube channel reaches a million subscribers. Wikipedia — Drew Gooden (comedian)

  26. Wojak The NPC, a grey-faced Wojak with no expression, spreads as an insult. Twitter suspends about 1,500 accounts posing as activists with the face. Wikipedia — Wojak

  27. Newgrounds New members arrive in large numbers from Tumblr, after that site restricts adult content. Wikipedia — Newgrounds

  28. The Tumblr adult content ban The ban takes effect. The automatic filter flags many pictures that are not explicit. Wikipedia — Tumblr

  29. Tumblr A ban on explicit images takes effect. Wikipedia — Tumblr

More from 2018Also remembered

On this page: 10 named things from 2018, 3 videos, 4 memes, 1 sound or saying and 1 trend among them.

The years either sideNearby