Spending time on the internet is a relentless exercise in separating fact from fiction. You’re casually searching for news on Kanye West’s latest antics, and an article suggests that the rapper cockily scored 106 points against a wheelchair basketball team (he did not).
Twitter threw up an equally wild rumour to start off the week. After someone shared a picture of Anne Hathaway on the front cover of Elle France, a chaotic quote tweet arrived.
“Every tweet about anne hathaway going viral like police didn’t find human remains and evidence of cannibalism in her LA home that she sold in 2013,” it unbelievably read.
Let us save you the time of a google search: there’s no online mention of the actress ever being a cannibal or having human remains on her property. Renowned fact-checking website Snopes hasn’t even deigned to cover it.
The Twitter user responsible for the chaotic tweet, @hotpriestt, soon followed up by comically saying, “Good Evening, “Anne Hathaway is a cannibal” was a 24 hour sociological study on spreading misinformation online and was conducted by Harvard University. We are now complete with our study. Thank you for your time.”
With over 14,000 likes in one day, there were a few gullible individuals to go round. “Show proof,” demanded someone, to which @hotpriestt sent a poorly photoshopped image of Hathaway beside a country house.
“If true, she doesn’t look like she ate ’em, wrote someone else, giving far too much thought to the whole thing. “What are you meant to look like when u eat people?” was someone’s very fair reply.
Now that we’ve established that Anne Hathaway isn’t involved in nefarious deeds, the Oscar winner was involved in another side of internet culture last week.
In an interview with Interview, she was asked by Mindy Kaling, “Who in the culture now has great BDE to you?” BDE, for those out of the loop, stands for “big dick energy”.
Hathaway’s choices? “Right now, Lizzo’s got it,” she insisted. “Billie Eilish for sure. Harry Styles, obviously. Everything Everywhere All at Once star Michelle Yeoh also got a special shoutout for possessing “big goddess energy.”
https://twitter.com/hotpriestt/status/1540774985693704193?s=21
Good Evening, "Anne Hathaway is a cannibal" was a 24 hour sociological study on spreading misinformation online and was conducted by Harvard
University. We are now complete with our study. Thank you for your time.— Girl with no problems (@hotpriestt) June 26, 2022
— kelechi (@kelechi_ai) June 26, 2022
What are you meant to look like when u eat people
— 𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾⁷ (@jjkseuphoriax) June 26, 2022