My old tweet got 50,000 views after someone dug it up to cancel me

I posted a dumb joke about a movie three years ago and forgot about it. Last Tuesday, a screenshot of it went viral in a fan group, calling it 'problematic.' I woke up to over 200 angry messages and my follower count dropped by 1,200 in a single day. The number that shocked me was the 50,000 views on that old tweet, all from people who never knew I existed before that morning. Has anyone else had something from years ago suddenly blow up like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam75117d agoTop Commenter

Ugh, I saw a whole article about this exact thing happening to people.

the_riley8d ago

That's brutal. @the_paul is right about it just being ammo. It makes you wonder who actually cares about the old joke itself versus who just wants the social credit for the call-out. Was there one big account that shared it first, or did it just sort of spread on its own? I've seen stuff like this happen where a post gets traction in a small group, then a moderator with a lot of followers screenshots it to "address" it, and that's the match that lights the fire.

the_paul17d ago

Watch how this stuff gets used in bad faith political fights. Someone digs up a ten year old tweet from a local candidate about pineapple on pizza, and a PAC runs ads calling them "anti-agriculture" or some nonsense. It's not about the joke anymore, it's just ammo. Your movie take got turned into a weapon to make someone else look good for calling you out.