For example there is one guy in a country who is being a dick or a single small business in some country that’s being a dick
But the internet catches wind of it and it ends up gaining traction online and ends up going from something small and minor to something huge online and actually seeming worser and bigger than it is and potentially makes the country where it happened appear like that when it isn’t true.
I’m looking for a word or words to describe this.
Good Grief, people:
EMBIGGEN.
Though totally blow out of proportion would be more sane, “embiggen” nails it in a single word.
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Sensationalization
To “blow out of proportion”.
Or
To “make a mountain out of a molehill”
Tuesday
Hyperbole.
Rage bait?
Monetization.
“Distraction”
I feel like “going viral” partly covers that? When you make an offensive tweet before boarding a plane, and get turn off flight mode to realise the world has judged you and you’ve lost your job?
If you specifically mean how the Internet can misrepresented a country because most people online have never been to Montenegro or Bhutan, then it’s maybe just “bias”?
Internet drama
You night be thinking of the Streisand effect, which is a little different, but very similar
The internet
serious answer: overreaction is another term people haven’t mentioned yet
For profit media. Opportunistic.
Doxing is when you expose someone’s (or a business’s) identity or name or location for the internet to brigade.
Most of the time the target has faced some controversy (often petty and small) and once the internet catches wind, a flurry of fury and hate is unleashed upon the target.
Is this what you mean?
In general: a mismatch between media reality and reality - that’s pre-internet terminology, mind you, but it applies.
